The Catacombs Of Snicket
by Blue Stem Cell
Summary: “We’ve landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I’ve just discovered cat people.” Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way? 10th Doctor.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket  
**Author:** Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)  
**Rating:** 14 +  
**Genre:** Drama/Action/Mystery?  
**Summary:** "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people." Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way?

Chapter One:

The Doctor. Sometimes he really hated him.

On other days he could transport him to the most unusual places, the most exotic and imaginative of universes. They would take mind-blowing adventures, the kind that left the end of your toes numb with the afterglow to boot.

But most days, he hated him.

"You did this on purpose." Zachary Birch was on his back for the second time in day. This time however, he had the most unfortunate problem of landing with his legs practically over his shoulders. Luckily for him he was supple enough but that didn't mean it hadn't hurt, even more so it did not mean he had enjoyed such a tumble.

"It wasn't me!" A voice cried and Zachary knew to an extent that it was not his companion's entire fault. However, you cannot very well blame the vehicle when you forget to put fuel in the dammed tank. He had asked once before whether or not the TARDIS had needed fuel and was met with a look you give children when they ask whether the tooth fairy is real.

"Now where have you taken us, hmm?" He heard the Doctors voice again and he sighed, knowing there was no use in asking the man's help to right him up. He swung his legs around and with a small grunt he landed on his behind on the TARDIS floor.

He shook his head of dark hair, running a hand through it and then grimaced at the feel of grime upon his fingers. The bathroom in the TARDIS had the most annoying habit of simply vanishing, only to turn up elsewhere. The boy had searched in vain for three days while they travelled; he would just half to wash his hair when they landed somewhere somewhat humanoid in life.

"Well where are we then?" He asked from his position on the floor and it was only then that he gained the Doctors attention. The man, if Zachary could call him a man, had been zooming with the energy of a sugar-laced toddler around the control panel of the time machine. The Doctor stopped quite suddenly in his tracks and peered at the boy, as if seeing him for the first time. It quite unnerved him when he did that but after a month, he was getting used to it.

Of course he wished he didn't have to get used to the wonderful, but highly insane man that he was travelling with. He just wanted to go home, but then he remembered why he was with the Doctor in the first place and let a smile linger in the corner of his mouth. He had to smile, he would cry if he didn't and what had his mother told him; big boys don't cry. No, in Zachary's case they curled up in a corner and banged their little heads until they bled, but that was another story.

"Zachary my boy, do you like cats?" And then he smiled. Teeth white, gleaming against his skin. He carried that crazed look in his dark eyes again and his caramel coloured hair looked a little wilder than it usually did. The doctor knew Zach's answer and wiggled his fingers towards him before they grasped hands and the companion was pulled to his feet.

* * *

Zachary followed after the Doctor as he swung the doors to the TARDIS wide open. The stench of the air and not the scenery was the first thing to hit their faces. The Doctor arched one slim eyebrow up and took a great sniff on the air. Zachary did the complete opposite and pulled the sleeves of his jacket down to cover his nose.

"What on Earth?" He laughed though, and gave a great shake of his head when he saw where the TARDIS and had taken them. Peering around he caught a glimpse of the alley they had been jammed into; there was little room for the pair of them to move. The Doctor plunged his hands deep in the brown trench coat he donned on outings and peered up at the dismal grey sky up a head.  
"It's not that bad." He commented. "You should smell Yorkshire through my nose."  
"Oi, I've had just about enough of your northern bashing mister alien." Zachary scolded playfully and he smirked when the Doctor turned to him, flashing one of his award winning smiles.

"You can talk. Come on!" He spun around on acid green converse and practically waltzed down the tiny grimy alleyway. The boy could only shake his head with a roll of eyes, running after the Doctor as not to be left behind. The sound of his Nike high-tops hitting the cobbles below echoed from the narrow space. The alley was certainly long and he had just crossed a small set of cross roads when the boy felt something collide with the side of his legs.

It sent him to the ground, landing on his behind for the third time that day. Cursing himself he scowled at the sky above before he sent his gaze downwards towards his chest. Something small and possibly naked had curled upon him, shivering with its head tucked between its legs.  
"D-DOCTOR!" Zachary froze, suddenly terrified of what had landed upon him but then he remembered who he was with, and the promise he made to him. Repeating those words in his head he found the strength to lick out over his dry lips.

"H…Hello." He called to the little bundle, he even managed to sit himself up but unfortunately, the little thing held onto him. "Hey!" He scolded it, but it turned its head up towards him and Zachary felt his heart melt.

"Cats, hmm?" He asked out loud with a frown, refusing to find the Doctors sense of humour amusing.  
The boy, if that was what it was, was tiny. That was Zachary's first observation. His skinny pale body shook from the chilled wind that rushed through their hair. Black grime filled hair sat on top of his head, sticking out at every possible angle and fell in great waves down his tiny back. He looked no older than five with eye's as blue as water, but distinctly human. What were not so human however were the cat ear appendages upon his head. Not human ears, just tuffs of fur that he twitched sideways and back again and clutched desperately between his grimy little fingers was a busy black tail.

It cooed at Zachary and then buried himself back in the boy's armpit, still shaking from the cold. "Doctor!" He called again, feeling a sudden rush of annoyance that the man had gone ahead and left him to his own devices yet again.

The sound of footsteps made him sit up, the little bundle in his arms clung to his jacket, smearing him with dirt and speckles of blood from his scraped knee's. He almost jumped with fright at the sight of the Doctor suddenly next to him, whipping his glasses out to place them upon his skinny nose.  
"Now what have we got here?" He asked with the air of excitement running through his very bones. The smile on his face was wide and bright and Zachary found himself frowning at it. However, the Doctors smile faltered and he gained a look in his eyes that the boy had grown used to hating. It was not the Doctor himself, just the look. It would send ice into his stomach, pooling there until a happier thought melted the anguish away.

"Where are we Doc?" He asked quietly as he scooped the little cat boy up into his arms more firmly, zipping open his jacket as to shield him from the cold of the every looming alley way.

"The Catacombs of Snicket."

"You mean…we're actually on a world made of…"

"Yup, alley ways. Well, alley ways really. Well not really, just a segment of it. It spreads out into courtyards, must have been where this little fellow came from. Poor thing. You poor little thing." And the Doctor stared at the little child for a few moments and a sorrow past his eyes.

"You asked if I liked cats, are there more of him." Because if there were, then Zachary would be having serious words with whomever the boy's parents where. Fancy letting him run around a dirt ridden alley in the freezing cold with nothing but his birthday suit and a pair of furry ears.

"The TARDIS picked up his life form, I thought…" The doctor gave a great sigh and took his glasses from his nose. He held them in his free hand as he reached the other out for the child. It cowered away for a moment before the Doctor snaked his fingers gently under his chin and tilted his face towards him. Running a thumb over the boy's cheeks the man began to think, something that Zachary had informed him was a dangerous thing to do.

"So…" Zachary coughed, trying to break the silence. The stench had also worked into the back of his throat again and he felt a sudden wave of nausea, but he quickly shook it away. "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people. The Japanese fan girls are going to have a field day with this." He rolled his eyes but smiled when the little child began to purr and coo at the Doctors petting's.

"No." Said the Doctor.

"Well I wasn't really going to tell the Japanese-"

"No, it's not that. Something's not right here. I've met cat people before but they don't look anything like this. They look like cats, but this…" He shook his head in confusion, and Zachary realised he was trying to think too much again. At this rate, the Time Lord was going to suffer a bout of migraines and the boy was going to be dealt a numb behind if he didn't get up off the floor.

"Help me up." He asked. "And then you can tell me what on Earths going on because that dammed time machine of yours brought us here for a reason."

"You're right about that. You're catching on Zachy boy." The Doctor beamed at him, holding out a hand once again to help him to his feet, the child still clutched in his arms.

"So, planet name?" Zachary asked as he slipped off his jacket, placing it more firmly around the child who he so desperately wanted to bathe and give a good meal too. Not to mention put him in clothes and shoes, at this rate he was going to be more like a nanny than a university student.

"I told you, the catacombs of Snicket."

"That's…that's really the planets name?" He asked with an arch of a thick black eyebrow and the Doctor gave one his bizarre nods where he pursed his lips to the side, staring of at the opposite wall before snapping his gaze right back to the boy.

"Yup."

"And the main species…" Zachary was catching on fast with the whole time and space travel. It still left his mind spinning, but he realised that once he had the basics down then it would be simple enough to process in his mind. Well, that was what he had told himself when he started his crazy adventure with the Doctor and only time would tell if his crazy theory was going to work.

"Not this little guy, that's for certain. No, we're on a world dominated by the Zourma's. It's a trading planet, deals with all kinds of things from alien tech, under garments and uhh…livestock."

"Live stock?" Zachary felt his voice falter and he swallowed the build up of spit in his mouth. It was not a pleasant feeling to have and the boy had felt it quite a bit since being with the Doctor. However, he would just have to get used to it but his mind set was taking its sweet time about it. He looked down at the little child in his arms and gave him a warm smile that widened when the little thing wrapped his arms around his neck and cooed happily into his ears.

"Hmm, come on. I want to show you something." And with that, the Doctor sped up his long legged walk and Zachary had to quickly jog behind to keep up with him. The time lord was pushing six foot and Zachary was barely 5'2. It was hard to keep up with the giraffe when the mere cat could barely see over the control panel of the TARDIS. Well, looking down at the little boy, at least he was no longer the tiniest in the party. But he could not keep of referring to him as 'the boy'.

"What's your name little 'un?" The little cat child only peered at him with an inquisitive look and tilted his head to the side before reaching one of his hands around to place in his mouth.

"Definitely younger than five." He muttered to himself before he tilted his head to one side and nudged the little boy in the cheek, watching as he grinned with sharp baby teeth. He didn't yet have all of his milk teeth, but he certainly had a pair of cat fangs that brought back memories of the boys own house cat. It was an old white tom cat who appeared to be built like a brick shit house. At least that was how Zachary described him over the phone to the vet who had the unfortunate job of neutering the animal. He never did regain the full use of his left arm.

"Oh now this! Zachy Boy, come look at this!" And there the Doctor went again, excitement coursing through his very veins and Zachary snapped out of his trance like state, almost colliding with the man's back before he peered around him.

"…Whoa."

The noise of the market hit their ears first and the boy wondered how they had not heard it before in the alleys that led up to it. It was a large courtyard, surrounded by turrets of high walls that seemed to grown up into the sky, disappearing into the dismal clouds above. Down below and where they stood were stalls that seemed physically locked together and people of every colour shape and size waded their way through to consume.

Market merchants shouted their deals from every possible corner and in every volume their own voice boxes could possibly achieve. They howled that their prices on Szechuan silk was greater than that their rivals and that no one could refuse the bargain of a life time on 9 Nipper looms for the price of 7 and a half.

"Nasty little fruit that grows fuzzy on your tongue. Makes you forget to breathe and everything tastes purple after that. However, excellent for warding off penguins?" The Doctor informed the boy who only peered at the Doctor with a small shake of his head, his lips parted in almost disbelief.

"You better be having me on." He warned the man as they squeezed their way through stalls and a creature with more eyes than Zachary knew was useful. The Doctor only beamed at him, not giving away any of his secrets.

"Of course. Nothing can taste purple."

"Good." Zachary rolled his eyes as he shifted the cat boy to his hip, wrapping his arms more firmly around him as not to drop and loose him in the mass of people.

"More of a lilac taste really-"

"Doctor!" Zachary whined but the man only spun on his ludicrously bright shoes and beamed at his young companion.

"Now then! Let's figure out why you have in your arms a Kemonomimi." Sometimes Zachary wished he could read minds. That way he would have known this the minute he asked the Doctor what the little boy was. Instead, the Doctor liked to string things out and he was sure it was just to make him stand there with his mouth partially opened. The little child pressed his fingers up towards the boys mouth and attempted to close his mouth for him.

"Did you just make that up?" He asked, holding the child's hands in his own, marvelling for a moment how small it was compared to his own.

"Japanese slang describing humanoid characters that possess animal-like features. But you shouldn't exist for another…well, you shouldn't exist yet." He said to the cat, placing his hands on his hips as he stooped to stare at the child.

"Are you going to buy anything?" A disgruntled looking burnt orange man asked from the side of a store. At least Zachary assumed he was male, the voice being a certain giveaway. The breasts on the other hand made him tilt his head to the side.

"Oi!" The merchant threw his-it's arms across his chest and shooed them along the crowded pathway.

"It's rude to stare Zachy boy, you of all people should know that."

"I also know a guy who would love to have boobs that big." He gave a shake of his head and focused back on the task in his arms. "Why shouldn't he exist, that makes no sense? You said yourself, everything exists that's why I'm…well." He felt his cheeks warm and the Doctor placed a hand on his shoulder, reassuring him that for now everything was fine and that it would stay fine for as long as he was around. At first his cheeks burnt from anger but it slowly faded to a blush of embarrassment and he shrugged the Doctors hand away, but smiled all the same.

"So anyway. Why can't Collin exist?" He asked and then shifted his gaze to the cat boy who was now resting his weary head upon the boy's shoulder, yawing like any other house cat that lounged on the window sill. The Doctor arched an eyebrow at him. "Collin?" He asked to which Zachary nodded his head firmly and gave a soft shrug of his shoulders.

"Well he needs a name doesn't he?" And with that he pushed past the Doctor and began to rub the little things back soothingly, hoping he would fall asleep in his arms. All the running in the cold must have warn the poor thing out.

"Zachary, you can't keep him." The Doctor ran after him but the boy only shook his head stubbornly. "And why ever not? He's not going to hurt anyone, and he can stay with me in the TARDIS, it's no big deal-" He felt himself being pulled backwards by the Doctor, spun around on the spot and the Time lord leaned down until their noses almost touched.

"Don't forget why you're here Zachary Birch. You're not to get attached to that boy. We're going to find out why a species that shouldn't exist at this moment of time is here. We're going to hopefully right this and then we're going to be on our way." The Doctor was not always fun and games and Zachary didn't always like him. He scrunched his eye's up tight and clenched his teeth together, taking deep breaths as not to simply up and scream. He nodded his head but kept his eyes closed, aware that the Doctor was still so close to him. He felt his heart beat harder and harder inside his chest, but refused to look at the man's eyes. The last time he was so close to him almost ended in disaster and he was not about to let it happen again.

"Zachary look at me, please?" The Doctor coaxed but the boy only grew more stubborn.

"Not until you stop looking at me like that. You know what…what nearly happened last time."

"That was an accident Zachy boy." There, he said it. Sometimes the boy wondered whether the Time Lord ever gave any of his other companions nick names. He knew he was not the youngest. The boy was quite a deal older than he looked. Twenty one and he was still IDed for 12A films. But it was part of his package and deal and he took a deep breath, tearing himself away from the Doctor to open his eyes.

"I'm sorry. You're right. We'll find out why he's here, you'll zoom in and save the day and we can be on our way." But as the words left his mouth, he found himself clinging onto the child more so than before. He felt the Doctors hand on his shoulder one last time before he smiled brightly up at him. Everything would be fine; the Doctor had promised him that.

"HEY!" Their brief silence was cut short as an angry voice cut across the market stalls, attention directed straight at them.

"I hope you mean to pay for that dammed thing!" The voice of the man screeched at them, and Zachary saw a bean pole shaped merchant, pointing his accusing finger straight at him and his little sleeping bundle.

"Well." Started the Doctor. "I think we found our starting point Zachy."

And just sometimes, he really, really hated the Doctor.

**To Be Continued…**

**

* * *

****A/N:** First DW fanfiction, hope it flows well. All will be revealed eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket  
**Author:** Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)  
**Rating:** 14 +  
**Genre:** Drama/Action/Mystery?  
Disclaimer: The Doc belongs to the BBC. Only Zach, Collin and the plot belong to me so I apologise for this brain burp that happened.  
**Summary:** "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people." Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way?

Chapter Two:

"Oh boy." Zachary felt his arms tighten around the little bundle of cat child still secured and fast asleep. He felt even more protective after the Doctors scolding about not being too attached to the little thing but he couldn't help it. The child was all alone, lost, scared and frightened and the feeling was too close to home. He knew how much of a fool he would sound if he breathed a word of this too the Doctor, even though somewhere the Doctor felt the exact same way.

The merchant seller stormed towards them the best he could with the crowds and tight spaces between each of the carts. Any moment now the Doctor was going to tell him to run, to take the child and hide him somewhere. He kept on waiting for it, even glanced up at the man every so often.

"Doctor?" He asked but the Time Lord looked down at him and he felt his gaze shift away.

"Don't even think about it. We need answers."

"I'm not going to let him take him." He told him quite pointedly but then the Doctor said something that made him smile and his faith in the man was restored to full once again.

"Then don't." There was a smile in his voice and sure enough when the boy looked up the Time Lord held his characteristic beaming grin. The feeling of soon dwindled though when the bean pole merchant was upon them, almost towering over the Doctor with a sharp pointed face and the beginning of male pattern baldness upon his head. Dressed in a white cotton shirt and brown apron, he gave the appearance of someone who knew what they were doing in their line of work. Zachary wondered what his line of work intended and as soon as he thought it, Collin stirred in his arms.

"I should have you for theft." He waved his finger at the Doctor and then turned his attention straight to Zachary, towing over him and his five foot two frame. This happened to the boy all of the time. However, he had been the smallest kid on his street growing up and had become used to bigger people using their advantage of size over him. It no longer phased him and he stared hard face at the man, arching one dark eyebrow at him at the same time.

"Do you know what we do to thieves here little boy." And so the merchant went with a different approach, noticing how his first approach had not won the boy over. "We don't just take your hands from you. Oh no, we'll chop up and sell the whole lot of you and what's more, you won't be dead when it happens."

"Yes, thank you." The Doctor gave a sigh and waved his hand at the man who went to take Collin from Zachary, but the boy stayed true to his world and didn't let the boy from his arms. He jumped backwards and kicked out with one leg and caught the man in his shin. It was perhaps not the manliest or even the smartest of things to do and Zacahry found himself hiding behind the Doctors much taller frame.

"Give that back you little-"

"Accordance with the Shadow Proclamation, the breeding of human hybrids is forbidden, especially of trading planets. " He delved inside his trench coat and pulled out a little blank piece of paper that he waved in front of the man's face. Psychic paper was a wonder when shown to a person; it could usually induce them to see whatever the user wished them to see printed on it. The Doctor was given psychic paper while employed as an agent by the Time Lords' covert organisation, the Celestial Intervention Agency. At least that was what he had told Zachary when he had asked where he could get his own hands on something like that. To his disappointment, the Doctor had informed the boy that such devices would be useless to him.

The merchant seemed to stoop very suddenly, eyes a constant gaze upon the piece of paper. "It...It wasn't me, sir I swear. I Just-I just sell the dammed things, and dammed things they are sir."

At this, Zachary scoffed behind the Doctors back and peered out from behind the Time Lord, scowling at the merchant.

"They scratch and bite and won't do a dam thing they're told, just animal's sir really."

"Who's supplying you with them?" The Doctor glanced behind him at his young companion and the child he was reluctant to give up. Collin had awoken, took one look at the merchant and gave one mighty hiss, scrambling over the poor boy until he was safely at his back. Clutching with his fingers partially in Zachary's skin, the cat child growled low in his throat, his tail smacking against the back of his legs.

The boy winced, sinking his own fingers into his palms, leaving angry half moon circles embedded in the soft flesh. Collins finger nails certainly where not clean and he was starting to dread the amount of disinfectant he was going to have to clean his shoulders with after they were done interrogating.

"Oh I can't tell you that sir. There just animals, that's all. People buy 'em for their offspring, think they're all cute and adorable at this age but want nothing to do with 'em when they hit puberty."

"What happens to them then?" The Doctor asked and they both watched as the merchant gave a shrug of his shoulders, but a nasty little smile worked into the corner of his mouths. "They flush 'em I guess. No, they give me a call and I come and collect 'em. Breed the ones with good bone structure, you have to make sure they're going to give you a cute litter or you're going to end up putting all that work in for something you've got to drown at the end of it all-"

The merchant never got to finish his little rambling tale as Collin was thrust non to gently into the Doctors arm and Zachary propelled himself onto the man.

"You vile little…Ahh!" In the tiny space they occupied, he could do little more than push at the Merchant, causing him to stumble and fall into the nearest of stalls. At once he was on top of him, reeling his fist back to punch straight at the man's face, his shirt scrunched up in his other hand.

"Zachary don't!"The doctor warned from behind him and the soft sounds of whimpering could be heard from the Time Lords arms. Gritting his teeth, the boy closed his eyes and told himself to breath, just like the Doctor had first instructed him too on the very day they met.

"You're lucky…" He very nearly hissed in the man's ear. "You're lucky the Doc is here, because apparently I don't have the best temper in the world. And I hope, God I hope that something terrible happens to you one day and when it comes no one will look at you with pity, only disgust. You vile evil cockroach!" And with that he was pulled back by the scruff of his neck non to gently and Collin was dumped back in his arms.

"TARDIS, now. And stay there until I come and get you." The Doctor told him through gritted teeth and pointed in the direction of the alley way they had come from. Zachary felt his cheeks burn and he held Collin close to him before nodding and muttering his apologies.

"You, up. Tell me who supplied you with the Kemonomimi."

Zachary walked back towards the TARIDIS with a scowl upon his face, screwing his face up in anger as not to let himself cry. He would not be reduced to tears by a man who promised he would look after him. What happened to everyone else the Doctor was supposed to look after. The Time Lord had said himself that he had a duty to protect but if he was not going to help the Kemonomimi or Collin then what was the point.

"Of course he'll help them." He told himself as he weaved through creatures and races that made his heart beat terribly beneath his chest. "He won't leave you Col, and neither will I." He sucked in a great breath of stale air and attempted to smile at the little cat child who had been sobbing silently in his arms.

"Oh." Zachary sighed and stopped in a quieter part of the market and sat down on an old upturned crate, holding the cat child on his lap. He looked at the little boy and his red puffy eye's which he began to wipe gently at with his fingers. The cat purred and beamed up at Zachary, his woes suddenly forgotten when presented with affection. Zachary could see this as a major flaw in the boys design but it was for the same for dogs as well. You could beat them senseless but ten minutes later they'll run up to you with their tail wagging and tongue hanging out.

"You silly thing." He gave a great sigh but smiled at the same time, twiddling his fingers around for the child to focus upon. "Don't mind the Doc will you." He added. " I know he means well and he's right, I am a pain to be around but…but he'll look after you and he'll set everything thing right, he always does. At least…he try's too." Zachary still had faith in the Doctor, faith in the promise he had made to him.

"And try he does child." A voice startled him and he looked around him for the source. The woman met his eye's and they stared at each other across the little gangway and gaggle of stalls. Majestically she sat on a high back sofa chair that was decorated in deep oranges and pale blues. It matched her shawl like attire that brought out the dark warm mocha colour of his skin. She was old, that was for certain but her dark eye's held something that drew the boy towards her and he found himself upon his feet.

"Huh?" He asked looking down at Collin in his arms who only peered at him with confusion.

"Come child, I wish to share with you your secret." And with that, Zachary found his legs moving quite on their own accord and he walked towards the woman and not towards the TARDIS like he had been instructed to. He sat in front of the woman on a small stool, holding Collin firmly on his lap, his fingers laced around his skinny over sized jacketed waist.

"Give me your hand child." She extended her own towards him and he obliged her, handing him his free hand that was not holding onto his little charge. She grasped it firmly, yet gently and simply held it, her dark eyes never leaving his own blue ones. Suddenly he was rather aware of how intensely she was staring at him before she gasped, causing Collin to fret pitifully in Zachary's lap.

"Oh I am sorry child, yes sorry I am. The kitten you sit in your lap, keep him safe and with you at all costs, do not let that lord of time tell you otherwise. And he is sorry too."

"Sorry for what?" Zachary asked, his eyebrows knitting together. He never was good with cryptic responses and was even worse at trying to figure them out. A sudden fear ran through him that perhaps the Doctor would be unable to keep his promise, and history would repeat it's self.

"He's…The Doctor, he's going to lose me, isn't he?" Zachary asked but the saddened look the woman gave him made him nod his head and he looked down and at Collin. "Like he lost Donna and Martha…and, Rose." The Doctor had not told Zachary that he had lost his previous companions, only that they had left him. The time lord had left it at that and Zachary believed it was none of his business to go delving into what was not his to delve into.

There was a wall of photographs in the Doctors TARDIS and he had said he had known them all at one time or another. But the look he gave some of them said everything to the boy. They hadn't died and he was sure that they had not left of their own accord, only that that brilliant man had lost them and in return gained nothing but a broken heart from it. Had he known when he took Zachary, when he made that promise? Had he known Zachary would break his heart as well? But he knew he was different from the other companions. He had not wanted to travel the universes and the thought of meeting other races terrified his socks from his very feet.

"Poor lost little Seraph, chased through the sky's to pay for the sins of the father. Yes, oh yes he will come, for you cannot out run him. Travel across the universes and time it's self and you will not lose him. Face him you must young Seraph before you cease to exist. Never before has this Lord with no name had anything like you."

Zachary screwed his eye's up tight and told himself to breathe through his nose, gritting his teeth together. "I'm not a thing." He said quietly, perhaps too quiet for the old woman to hear.

"Ah, but you're not what you believe you where either."

"I know what I am!" He shouted very suddenly, unaware he had done such a thing. Without realising it, he was once again on his feet, with poor Collin holding on for dear life as not to fall and bang his little head on the cobbled ground. The area around them fell silent with many passer bys peering at him with curious eyes. The boy stared at each and every one of them, hatred burnt into his eyes at each and every one of them. They didn't know him or who he was, how dare they give him such accusing looks.

"Ceaseless and eternal, their heat and keenness, the exuberance of their intense, perpetual, tireless activity. Kindle them with your heat child, and wholly purify them by your burning and all-consuming flame." The old woman stared intently at him, her words growing stronger with every passing second and he found the anger falling from his face, leaving nothing in its wake.

"You know what I am?" He asked and for this she gave a simple nod.

"Run child because he creeps upon you and oh what revenge he shall have. Your forefathers will scream and you will be ripped from your mothers cradle. He shall bathe in your eternal fire for as long as this universe and the next are whispering with life, no matter how small it shall be. And yes child, he will lose you. But he will find so much more when he is done with you."

X

The doctor took a deep breath as he peered around the market stall, looking at each and every Kemonomimi he could lay his eyes upon. None of them where bigger than Collin, each as naked as he had been, there hair lank and matted, with drooping ears and big sad eyes. The Doctor shook his head sadly and crouched down in front of one of the smaller children.

No older than a year, it seemed to have trouble trying to stand up. It shivered in the cold and cried pitifully for what the Doctor could only guess was its mother. They had no true language as they were far too young to master it.

"I feed 'em milk, just like they told me too but, they don't seem to take to it too well." The merchant sucked on the side of his cheeks as he leaned on one side of his stall, staring down at the little bundle of children. There were eight of them all together, huddling and mewing in the cold, each with a small leather collar around it skinny little neck attached to pole in the middle of the stall.

"No, they wouldn't." The Doctor said through gritted teeth as he reached for his Sonic Screwdriver, pulling it from his coat pocket he showed it to the little child. "See this, makes a pretty little noise. Won't be a moment." The little boy stared at him with green cats eyes, making a small round O with his mouth when the screwdriver buzzed over him. Tilting his head to the side, the Doctor listened to the distinct noise the screwdriver made and gave a great shake of his head.

"'Ere, what are you doing?" The merchant asked, Tabla Atina was his name and he reminded the Doctor once more that he had mouths to feed at home and it was no concern of him as to where the merchandise came from.

"I told you sir, I only sell 'em for me boss."

"And I asked you before for your employers name or am I going to have to arrest you under act 7 of the Shadow Procla-" The man held his hands up towards his chest.

"I told you!"

"And my friend nearly punched you in the face when you didn't answer last time. "

"But he ain't 'ere now is he."

"No." Said the Doctor as he stood up, placing his screwdriver back into his pocket. A look passed over his face and Mr. Atina had to swallow the volume of spit that had built up in the back of his throat. "But I'm here now and Oh, I'm much worse than Zachary is. You sell children Tabla Atina. You helped pluck a baby from its mothers arm, strap a collar to its neck and flaunt it as the new must have pet." The time Lord gritted his teeth as he spoke, as not to spit the words at the man who began to physically stoop at the mans scolding's, much as he had before. "But I'll tell you something about the Kemonomimi's, they're awfully protective over their young and I'd hate to be in the way when they find out what you've been doing to their children.

"I…I don't. They're just animals, look!" Atina thrust his arms towards the small gaggle of children that clutched to the back of the Doctor, keeping safe with the only being that had been nice to them since their parents.

"Oh they're much more than that Mr. Atina. A proud race of people and you've helped harvest them for your own greedy benefits. Plucked from their point in time and space and placed with a bunch of life forms their parents consider mere mice. You better start praying that that child's mother doesn't coming looking for you Mr. Tabla Atina because I can assure you, I won't be there to keep you safe."

The merchant physically paled, the bottom of his jaw shaking. His species could tell the difference between a possible fabrication and a small amount of truth. He knew, somewhere in his DNA, that the Doctor spoke only the truth. They could not outright claim that someone was lying because they would not know for certain, but this he did know. The Doctor was right; if the mother found him then he most certainly would never see his own children again.

"Now Tabla, that name please and I'll guarantee that you'll see your family again."

X

Somewhere high above the market, lost in the polluted clouds of Snicket a being gave an almighty shriek of laughter and clapped its hands together all at the same time. If it was not careful, then it would certainly fall from its high pedestal and then how would it put its plans into action.

"Hmm yes!" It sniffed the air before pressing its nose to one of the many screens it had. It had cameras all over the world, its world, and had just stumbled upon something that would indeed make it very rich.

"A Time Lord and Seraph, my, what beautiful music they will make together, hmm oh yes. But first, ahh yes but first!" It thrust its arms up into the air and span around on its pedestal, pushing its face up onto a screen. It depicted a dark haired boy, his unruly hair sticking out in awkward angles, holding a squirming bundle in his arms as they made their way down the alley ways.

"But first, we must in entice its true form it ugly cocoon or such mess we will make." It sounded sad for almost a second before it keeled over and shrieked with laughter.

At the same time, lighting crossed the sky and Zachary frowned up at the clouds. "Come on Collin, let's go track down that bathroom." And with that, he slipped inside the TARDIS with the knowing that he wouldn't be with it much longer.

**To Be Continued…**

**A/N:** And the plot thickens…. Allow me to throw some nuts and chocolate sprinkles in there at the same time. I'm not religious, but if you got the reference then kudos to you. Let's just say I've borrowed from history and I don't plan on giving it back until I've mutated it and plonked it unceremoniously back into this story.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket  
**Author:** Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)  
**Rating:** 14 +  
**Genre:** Drama/Action/Mystery?  
Disclaimer: The Doc belongs to the BBC. Only Zach, Collin and the plot belong to me so I apologise for this brain burp that happened.  
**Summary:** "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people." Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way?

Chapter Three:

"See Collin, this is the TARDIS." Zachary grinned as he watched the little boy's expression change from that of fear to awe. His big blue eye's scanned around the inside of the time machine as the elder boy placed him gently on the ground. He hoped his feet would be okie on the grate like walk ways as he knew from experience not to walk bare footed on them anymore. Though at first Collin kept close to him as he showed him around the control panel, pointing at each of the different contraptions and levers. Not that the boy would admit it to the Doctor, but he rather liked the inside of the time machine.

The orange glow made it feel warm and the sound of the engine, or whatever it was that lurked deep inside, made the whole thing purr. Well, purr on hum he couldn't quite tell the difference. Though Collin seemed to be ecstatic and pretty soon he was running about the room of his own accord, high keens of gurgles spilling from his grinning mouth.

Zachary had first put his age at six, but it now seemed closer to three. Either that, or the Kemonomimi simply didn't communicate in the same way that he or the Doctor did. The Time Lord had informed him upon entering the TARDIS that it acted very much like a Babel fish inserted into the ear. Disgust had been clearly etched upon his face that day, but at least the only thing the TARDIS did was get inside his brain and not his ear canal. Come to think of it, he couldn't decide which was worse? A fish in the ear or a police box in the brain?

With a shake of his head he decided he was going to go insane if he thought about it too much. With a grin he rushed after Collin and his swinging tail and scooped him up into his arms, causing the little thing to squeal with delight. He threw his arms up into the air and wrapped them around Zachary's neck before nuzzling into the side of his cheek. It was only then that the boy began to really smell the little cat, and what a smell it was!

"Good lord Col." He laughed as he coughed slightly and shook his unruly hair at the same time. "Let's go find that bathroom, and then when we're both looking a bit cleaner we can go and find that pesky Doctor."

That pesky Doctor was a trifle too busy to remember he even had a companion right then. Wading through the market, he made his way towards the address the merchant had given to him. The Time Lord had warned him that if he came back to find any of the children missing, then he would taking a long hard look at the bottom of his trainer. Either that or he would let Zachary at him again.

Something about that had amused the Doctor. It had been so long since he had a male companion that was constantly by his side. Jack and Mickey counted to an extent, but Zachary took the place of Donna and Martha, and Rose of course. He gave one almighty sigh and realised that the inevitable was upon the both of them, but he knew that when he first took the boy. If he was any younger his parents would have had him up on kidnapping charges.

But Zachary was twenty two, and boy, did he not look it.

_1 Month Ago_

Zachary knew he should have stayed home that morning. He should have refused his bosses pleas for him to come into work. They were desperate, the other girl had called in sick and nobody else was answering their phones. Only Zachary was silly enough to accept an 8 hour shift on his feet when he'd already done a previous eight hours the day before.

All that didn't seem to matter now. No, all that mattered was the pain in his chest and the stitch from running. He skidded around the corner at full pelt and lost control of his legs, forgetting the last time he had ever used them so vigorously. They wobbled uncontrollably and he collapsed onto the floor, quite unaware on the tears streaming down his checks and the high keening in his voice. Pitifully he cried, curled himself up in the nearest corner and begged.

"Please, Oh God! Oh God please…" He hiccupped through the tears, quite forgetting that he didn't believe in any such God enough to warrant his begging towards him. Instead, he should have been begging the thing in front of him, the one that had come for him.

It glided down the disused street and towards the dark haired boy. The only thing he could describe the being as was _it_. Devoid of anything anatomically in hovered ever closer to him, feet never touching the floor. At least, he thought they were feet. It reached almost seven feet, a humanoid body made of intricate ghostly veins encased in a shell of glowing heat.

The boy could feel it upon his skin and threw his hands up into the air to shield his face. Its dark almond hollow eye's burned into him and he could feel it deep inside his own chest. How did something see so far inside of you? That was a personal space but none of that seemed to really matter now as a high terrified scream erupted from his throat. It rendered him deaf in the process and the monster coward away for him, shielding its own face with shimmering hands.

This gave him an opening and boy George was he taking it. Without a second look back he rushed to his feet and sprinted it as fast as he could past the cowering monster and towards more open area. If he could get somewhere crowded then surely it would not come after him, either that or it would follow someone else.

Oh he knew that was a terrible thing to think but it only took a second for a loving human being to remember that it was everybody for himself. But what was that noise that came from his throat? That was certainly not human, but right then it didn't seem to matter. What did matter was making his short little legs run like they had never run before. The side of his chest ached with an agonizing stitch, but he couldn't stop for fear that the monster would be onto him again.

Twenty minutes later found him slamming his back into the side of industrial sized bins. Collapsing to the floor he struggled for breath but pulled himself into the smallest tightest ball he could muster. The tears poured freely from his eyes and he hiccupped frantically with the realisation that something wanted him, and dead by the look of it.

What terrified Zachary Birch more than the knowing that a monster was going to kill him though, was the not knowing why it was going to do it. He'd never been in trouble with the law, had kept his head down in school. Heck, he didn't even have a driver's license to tarnish. But why did any of that matter anymore, if he was going to die?

Wiping the back of his jacket over his running nose he gave a great gulp for breath and lifted his head up ever so slowly. A strange whirring had gained his attention, sending gooseflesh up and down his arms. The little hairs on the back of his neck stood briskly to attention and something washed over him, a sudden feel of power that had him crouching on all fours gasping soundlessly for breath.

It stopped and the sound of wardrobe doors had him lifting his head up, blinking at the slender figure above him.

"Come with me if you want to live." The accent was British like his own, but unlike his own Yorkshire one, he couldn't place this one.

"Oh wait that was the Terminator wasn't it." The man frowned down at Zachary. Chesnutt brown hair grew like wild fire from the top of his head, framed by two perfect sideburns. His nose sloped with a characteristic imperfection that was probably not visible to anyone in passing. The long brown trench coat fluttered about his pin striped suit body, and it was then that Zachary noticed the banana yellow converse that completed his outfit.

"What the…" He started, but was quite unable to finish as the man took a hold of his arm and heaved him to his feet. "Alonsey!" He cried as he physically picked up the boy and dropped him over his shoulder. Unable to find his voice, Zachary stared at the back of the, quite insane, man. He heard the sound of wardrobe doors once again open, and suddenly he was inside. But inside where though?

His eye's travelled along grate covered walk ways, the sounds of the man's converse clattered gently against the metal. There was a soft whirring coming from the middle of the room, but until he knew where he was then he could not be certain of what he heard.

Suddenly he was upright, sat on something spongy that reminded him of old bus seats. His eyes fixed themselves first on the beaming man before they began to wander around the room. It must have been double the size of his parent's living room, maybe even triple. The entire room was a dome-shaped chamber with organic-looking support columns, as well as a lack of interior doors. However, there was a strange consol slap bang in the middle of it all with a pulsing beam of light that almost tripled him in height.

"Just look at you!" The man crouched, his hands pressed into the top of his knees and Zachary peeled his eye's away from the room, giving the man a puzzled look.

"You're…you're, tiny!" He exclaimed and the boy found himself suddenly scowling at the person in front of him. The scowl turned into that of hatred and he clenched his fists together, raising them up towards his chest in defence.

"I have had the worst day of my life. I've been chased by something that-that looks like it stepped straight out of a freaky Japanese cartoon! The last and I mean THE LAST thing I need is some weirdo dragging me off into his paedophile lair and calling me tiny!" Okie, so Zachary did have a flaw to him; a very short fuse and a temper that could rival a three year olds.

"Oh and by the way, I'm twenty freaking two! So before you get any sick ideas about trying to show me some puppy's then-" The strange man placed his finger up against Zachary's lips and rendered his quiet.

"I am sorry. You're younger than you look. Well, you would be. I'm the Doctor by the way, and don't worry I'm not a…paedophile." The very word seemed to leave a nasty taste in the man's mouth but he shook it away and held his hand out towards the boy, grasping one of his closed fists.

"The Doctor? Why would I need a Doctor and…what is this place?" He blinked suddenly, the anger leaving his face as his eyes where once again drawn towards the control panel in the middle of the room with its bright pulsing glass chamber.

"This?" The Doctor delved his hands deep into his jacket pocket and spun around on one foot, taking in the sights as well. "Oh, this is the TARDIS, my TARDIS. It's a ship. Well, my ship to be exact."

"A..A ship?" Zachary asked and he suddenly remembered what he'd been running from. All at once he was on his feet and rushing towards the door. It was not a monster chasing him, it was an alien and he had just stumbled upon its mother ship!

At once he hit the door, grabbed a hold of the handle and wretched it open. He threw himself outside and tripped over his own feet. Landing hard on his knee's he hissed in pain before throwing himself over, scrambling on the hard dirt ground below. He ripped open his jeans and had scraped his knee's until they where raw and bloody. Hissing in pain he glanced upwards but blinked, it was all he could do.

After expecting to look up at a building he had never seen before, instead he peered at a tiny phone box sized shed. It was an old blue wooden police box from the sixties. His grandfather had told him about when he had been arrested once and had been hauled quite rudely into one of the tiny boxes until he could be moved along to the jail cells.

"Wait!" The Doctor man threw himself out of the ship and clung to the doors. Peering down at Zachary he whistled inwardly at the mess he had made of his knees.

"Stay away from me alien freak!"

"Pardon?"

"You heard me! Not so tough without your glowing insides and strange jelly fish like hair! Oh and to think I was scared of you." He kicked the dirt towards the Doctor and brought himself to his feet. His knee's screamed in pain as he stumbled backwards but it didn't stop him from trying to move as far away as he could.

"No!" The Doctor cried and threw his hand out towards Zachary. "Trust me, that thing chasing you isn't me. Now for the love of everything on this planet, I'm begging you to get back in here!"

Zachary shook on the spot, shaking his head back and forth stubbornly. His dark hair swayed around him and brushed in front of his murky blue eyes.

"Tell me what's going on! What the hell have I done?!" He shouted at the Doctor and felt his arms tingle. The flesh upon his skin pimpled and he felt that intense heat from before and turned, almost in slow motion. Peering upwards he saw creature that had been chasing him mere minutes before.

It snarled at him and opened its mouth wide. There was nothing inside, no teeth or tongue just an empty voidless place. Zachary stared at it, felt himself being pulled down into the thing. Something on the inside tugged and pulled causing him to double over in pain, grabbing at the sides of his stomach and then his suddenly pounding head. The pressure grew behind his eyes and he heard the terrifying sound.

A few moments passed and he realised that the terrible shrieking noise had come from him but it had been the last thing he remembered. Something hard had hit him on the side of his head and his last thought was that he had been eaten. That was it. Good bye Zachary Birch, you never even knew why.

_Now_

Yes, Zachary was one of the Doctors more complicated companions. They had spent the first few days teaching the boy how to control that temper of his. Everybody gets angry sometimes. Being angry doesn't really solve much but it's what people do when they feel angry that left the Doctor with no choice. If he did not try to help calm the boy down he would end up getting angrier until he exploded! And explode Zachary would.

But now he had more pressing matter to be attending too. Zachary was safe inside the TARDIS where he could rant and rave to his heart's content and no one would be hurt in the process. It would be almost suicidal to take him with him to meet this mysterious breeder of Kemonomimi. But was it suicidal for the Doctor to be going it alone?

Most probably.

X

The TARDIS interior has a vast number of rooms and corridors. The exact dimensions of the interior were never specified and Zachary had never bothered to ask. He did ask how many rooms it actually had and the Doctors only reply was: Lots! But apart from living quarters, the interior includes an art gallery, a greenhouse, a bathroom with a swimming pool (when Zachary could find it) a medical bay, several brick-walled storage areas and a secondary control room with ornate wooden panels.

After happening upon the bathroom on a whim, the boy had shrieked and thrust Collin quite firmly inside it. He did not want to have to spend the next three days without a good hot bath or a kitten that smelled like an old laundry basket.

Now the boy had presumed that the cat would not want to anywhere near the bathroom, or indeed the hot soapy water that lay within. The bathroom it's self was made of white marble and dark oak panelled around it. It spiralled upwards into the same dome shape that the control room had but it was mirrored all along the top. The organic like structures weaved their way through the infer structure and Zachary would find himself simply staring at them in wonder most days. The swimming pool lay of a corridor in the room but Zachary had only ventured into it once as he couldn't swim and wasn't planning on learning how to either.

Quite remarkably, Collin had been eager to splash at the water with his hands as it ran, beaming up at the boy as it did so. He managed to persuade him to part with the jacket before he scooped him up and placed him into the water. It was just at the right temperature for such a little thing and he splashed quite contently in the water as the older male washed and rubbed at his long hair. Now that it was water logged, it fell nearly all the way down his back and he marvelled at how such a little thing could have grown so much hair.

After having to rinse the bath twice, Zachary was able to finally wash his own rank hair. He rubbed at it with shampoo until it squeaked and rinsed it through with conditioner until it gleamed. His hair would dry into dark black waves that would crop his face. After spending years with his hair constantly shaved close to his head, thanks to his mother's inability to let him get it professionally styled, he decided to let it grow out.

Wrapping towels around both him and Collin, he held the little kitten in his arms and made his way towards his own room. He prayed that the bathroom would behave for once and stay where it was. Luckily, he had his own toilet and sink in his room, or else he would be doing nothing but chewing gum constantly. One of his first realisation about the Doctor was that he could not have really been from England, his near perfect teeth where a dead giveaway.

His room was coloured with soft blues and whites with dark wooden floors that almost gleamed in the light. It doomed at the top like every other room in the TARDIS and a double sized bed sat quite nearly in the middle of it. The room was big enough for three of him, but it was donned with his own personal affects. There was a little space above his dark oaked desk where he kept photos and mementos of his travelling with the Doctor.

Not being the kind of boy who could admit freely that he liked this kind of thing, he kept it too himself. Oh he knew the Doctor had seen the wall space and his own picture staring back, but he was the kind of man to know when you didn't need to say a word.

In the middle of it all was a map of where they had been and to where they were heading. It would take a while to reach the planet they were both destined for, but at least they were not groping for it on a blind whim. That's why Zachary liked maps, especially the one the Doctor had given him.

It was made, not of paper, but of light. Real pure light that steamed downwards from rays of sunshine, collected and spun into thread that glowed like freshly made clouds. The only world he could describe it as was beautiful, but even that did not seem to cover such an item.

"_And this is where we're heading."_ He remembered the Doctors words and he remembered of how scared he was to hold such a thing in his hands. _"You'll fall in love Zachy boy, I can promise you that."_ Fall in love with what though? The same creature that had terrified him the day the Doctor met him? Well, he would just have to wait and see wouldn't he.

"Now then, you sit here and be good while I throw on some clothes. Then, we can see if the Doctor has anything in the wardrobe that will fit a squirming cat toddler." And somehow, he simply knew the Doctor would have. That man thought of everything. So why didn't he think to take Zachary with him to meet the breeder?

The Doctor found himself staring up at the high walls of one of the alley ways. Having faith in himself that he would find his TARDIS again, he drew his screwdriver from his pocket and began to scan the dirty brick work. It beeped and beeped and then gave a small whir letting the time lord know exactly where the front door was.

"Now then, let's see if anyone's home." He beamed at nothing before remembering that he was all on his own with no companion at his side. Sighing, he frowned and lowered his screw driver and thought about going back for Zachary. This was just as much his investigation as it was the boys and he seemed ever so attached to the Kemonomimi. However, his screwdriver whirled away in his pocket and he arched a thick brown eyebrow at his coat before turning his attention to the wall in front of him.

Stepping back, he watched as the walls slid apart to reveal a dark entrance way and so there was no turning back. It looked as if this would be one adventure Zachary would not be joining in on.

Or so that was what the Doctor believed.

**To be continued…**

**A/N:** I'm really sorry this is a slow build up. I'm writing it as I think of it and even though I've got the basic plot for it, what can I say? Oh well, we'll get to a decent bit soon, I promise. (That is, if anyone's actually reading this. XD )


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket  
**Author:** Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)  
**Rating:** 14 +  
**Genre:** Drama/Action/Mystery?  
**Disclaimer:** The Doc belongs to the BBC. Only Zach, Collin and the plot belong to me so I apologise for this brain burp that happened.  
**Summary:** "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people." Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way?

Chapter Four:

After throwing on a pair of clean jeans, of which the knee's had seen better days and a bright yellow T-shirt with a smiling bleeding face, Zachary scooped up Collin and made his way towards the TARDIS wardrobe. The bright green high-tops he sported clattered on the metal grating that seemed to run through the entire time machine. He remembered when the Doctor had given him specific instructions to reach the wardrobe and several times before he had wandered, apparently, a mile away from the dammed room.

Collin stood at the side of the three storey high room and peered up at wonder at the racks of clothes the Doctor had collected over the years. It didn't matter where they went or what time period it was, the Doctor was always prepared but did he have a stash of toddlers clothes? Zachary knew he was going to have to improvise and went straight to work delving through the many racks and boxes.

"Eighteenth century pantaloons, I think not. Elfir mating ritual head gear? Geeze Doctor!" Zachary smirked more to himself than the little boy before winking at him. "Be right back Col." He took a deep breath before plunging himself straight into the racks of clothes. A part of high felt like he was in Matalan with his best friend, joking that they would need to rub amphetamines into their gums just so they could reach the end of the racks.

He passed rows of belts and shoes, odd peculiar hats he'd never seen before and garments that looked older than him. It was not until he had decided he was quite lost inside the racks did he spot an old white cricketers jacket, complete with a real life celery stalk attached to the front of it. Blinking, he assumed the jacket would simply vanish but it transpired that the vegetable and the item of clothing really were still there. It was peculiar and never before had something gave him such a peculiar feeling. It felt vaguely familiar yet completely new at the same time.

"Zachary, you've cracked." The celery looked fresh but the Doctor hadn't been down to the wardrobe in days, he couldn't have put it there. Then again, this was the TARDIS and anything was possible. "I'll be seeing you later Mr. Celery jacket." He smirked, turned and had the peculiar feeling of eyes on his back. But he knew there was nothing there and that the old Time Machine was simply playing tricks on him.

Finally, he did find something that would fit Collin. A pair of blue denim dungarees and a long sleeved stripy black and red top that covered up nearly every bit of spare skin. They poor thing had been so used to wandering around naked that he was not too keen on the clothes at first and Zachary had to bribe him with his jacket again. He could have the chequered thing if he was good and kept the clothes on. There was something missing though and Collin wiggled his bare toes at him. He turned to see if he could hunt through the boxes of shoes when he noticed them sat quite perfectly on top of one of the shelves. Beaming, Zachary moved towards the tiny pair of shoes and plucked them from their resting place.

"You are going to so melt that Doctors heart, little man." He grinned at the little cat who only peered up at him with large blue eyes, drooling over one of his hands as he sucked on his fingers.

X

Of all the places the Doctor had travelled and of all the strange exotic species he had encountered, he had not expected the being in front of him. The Daleks and Cybermen could terrify you with a noise alone, but the creature in front of him simply bemused him.

She glided towards him in high heeled stilettos, a white lab coat fluttering around her beige skirt. It showed off her long luscious legs but they where nothing compared to the rest of her. Blonde hair framed her pretty little head with soft curls and ringlets; her large dark eye's framed behind silver wire spectacles.

The woman, and she was indeed a very human looking woman, glided towards the Doctor with a soft smile, her hands perched up her delicate slim waist.

"Well now, just the man we wanted to see. Oh but this simply shall not do, where's the other one." She looked up at him expectantly and the Doctor simply blinked at her. He was stood in what he could only describe as a very dull hallway. It reminded him of a dentist's waiting room and that alone sent shivers down his spine.

"Pardon?" The Doctor stared at the woman who simply frowned at him. "The boy! Where's the boy, we can't do anything without him you silly thing." The woman gave one almighty sigh before peering at him with her lips pursed to the side.

"You…You're not the breeder are you?" He dared to ask and the look on her face told him everything he needed to know. She began to laugh and tried to stifle it with the back of her hand.

"Oh no, you silly boy. Do I look like the breeder?" She tutted at him, waved one of her fingers in his face and promptly turned on the spot, her shoes clicking on the hard linoleum floor as she did so. The Doctor simply stared after her, mouth partially open. She turned on the spot and rolled her eyes at him. "Well come on then!" She called sharply to him and the Doctor blinked once more before he shrugged.

"Right then." He muttered, mostly to himself before he followed after the woman. Suddenly, he was glad he had left Zachary in the TARDIS, who knows what they wanted with him. Come to think of it, what did they want with _him_ and more importantly why did they need both him and the boy. The Doctor scolded himself; he really had to stop referring to Zachary as the boy as the said twenty two year old was going to eat his head for breakfast.

"Erm, excuse me but, where are we going?" The Doctor asked when he caught up to the woman, peering down at her and the around the hallways they walked down. They passed hard wooden doors that the Time Lord was very eager to peer into, always the nosey one.

"To meet the breeder of course, he's been expecting you Time Lord." She peered over her shoulder at him, smiled with near perfect teeth and battered her long lashes at him.

"Oh." The Doctor was not sure how to respond to that so he carried on walking.

"It's funny though." He added, raising a hand to run it though his thick mass of unruly hair. Pushing it back, he felt as if he could see more, despite the fact that it had not fallen in front of his eyes. A similar affect could be had with his spectacles. Oh he had perfect eyesight, but looking smart never hurt. Well, unless it was the smart ones they wanted too off first.

"What could be so amusing to you Time Lord? You've lost your home, your people and most importantly everybody you've ever loved." With that the woman turned towards him, stopping in her hurried tracks that seemed to be leading to know where. The Doctor stared at her, a solemn look past his eyes for a split moment before it was gone and then there was nothing. He stared down at her, his face hard.

"Can't argue with you on that one." He said quietly, towering over her until the smile faltered on her face.

"The boy, Doctor."

"What do you want with him?" His eyebrows came together in confusion as he peered at her near perfect face. It seemed almost plastic close up, all imperfections pushed aside, she didn't even have pore visible on her little petite nose.

"Oh my master has many wonderful plans for that little child of yours. It's funny though, no. You put all these people in danger and then you up and steal a boy from its parents."

"Funny." Came the Doctors response. "I was thinking of saying the same thing to that breeder of yours." He took another step towards her, and she faltered ever so slightly. "But I'll tell you one thing about that boy, that oh so special boy that your master so badly wants his hands on." She took one step back; he took one step forward until she was practically up against the wall. "A little bit of advice."Clenching his teeth he came eye to eye with her. "Never…ever…and I mean never ever _ever_, call him little."

The woman snaked her eyes left, then right and finally back up to the Doctor. "My master has waited long enough for you Time Lord. He warned me of your strange little ways but it won't be for much longer." She warned him.

"Oh we'll soon see about that!" And with that, the Doctor threw himself backwards, delved inside his trench coat jacket and retrieved his sonic screwdriver.

"And what, pray tell, are you going to do with that?" The blonde laughed high and shrill, her pretty voice filling the length of the corridor.

"Oh I thought I'd calibrate and re route every single one of your internal wires, how about that for starters."

The woman gasped, her eyes grew wide when the screwdriver was thrust towards her. He clicked it only once, and that was enough to cause the android in front of him to buckle over. It let out a high pitched scream before falling quite slack to one side. The doctor rushed forward, spun the woman around and peered at the back of her neck once he pushed her hair away. Under his fingers it felt thick and wiry, like that of dolls hair. How silly of him to let a robot get the better of his anger. Still, her words had been enough to make him have second thoughts about meeting the breeder. But if he left, who would save the children? Zachary would never forgive him if he didn't get to route of the problem. Besides, where was the fun in life if you walked away all the time?

The Doctor grinned before sticking his tongue between his teeth. Pointing his screwdriver at the androids neck he was able to open her control panel. A little bit of jiggering here and there and she'd be as good as new. Well…

"Show me where the breeder is." He told her once he had he had her back on her feet. For a moment she simply peered at him with dull eyes and it was then he realised that there was nobody home.

"Yes, sir." She never blinked, only turned on the spot and began to walk quite quickly down the corridor. The Doctor had to almost jog to keep up with her. Inwardly he apologised for taking the personality she had. Deep inside she had been a life, a programmed life but never the less she had her own mannerisms and quirks, and he had taken that from her.

The guilt did not last for long though when she abruptly turned towards one of the doors and opened with a simple push of her hand. Standing quite still, she pointed with one elegant finger into the darkness; her eye's never leaving the point before her.

"My master waits for you in here, sir." Her voice was still softly spoken and the Doctor peered over her shoulder and arched an eyebrow.

"Hello?" He called and his voice echoed deep inside the room. For a moment there was nothing and then something scuffled inside the darkness.

"I greet thee Lord over Time. Enter."

The Doctor sucked in a deep breath of air before taking the first step into the room. It was only then that he realised he had not quite been listening to the warning bells that where ringing quite loud and rudely in his head. Something had blocked them, and when he turned around he saw the androids eye's follow his. She smiled brightly at him before a laugh rose up high inside her throat. Before he knew what he had done, the woman pushed him ever so vigorously into the room.

It had not been a room at all, but a pit that led to only Hell knew where. He watched with wide eyes as she bubbled over with laughter before waving, closing the door sharply behind her.

The Doctor felt his arms twist and turn around him and fell through the air, wind whipping at his hair and clothes. It shrieked past his ears but before he had time to reach for his screwdriver, his head cracked against the side of the pit walls and a vivid blue light flashed across his eyes. Apparently, when the brain hits the side of the skull, a person will see blue lights before they would succumb to a concussion. The Doctor was able to curse himself for all of three seconds before he passed out cold on the hard ground below.

Meanwhile, Zachary had been making his way towards the TARDIS door. Collin was perched quite happily up on the boy's shoulders, clinging to the top of his head with his now clean finger nails. The elder boy had contemplated on cutting them but he was not hurting anyone with them, and he was actually quite gentle when he was not being threatened. Besides, why change what you didn't need too?

"This is protocol 42. Zachary if you're there it's me, the Doctor." The boy paused with his hand upon the handle before he turned very slowly around. There, in the middle of the Consol room, flickering away in soft blue light was a perfect replica of the last Time Lord of Gallifrey, trench coat and all.

"If you can see this it means I'm in trouble, more trouble than I'm usual in. I'm either unconscious or I've been put to sleep, but don't worry, because this is where you come in."

Zachary felt his heart beating quite firmly on his rib cage. Blood pounded into his ears and it was only then did he realise his grip of Collins legs was far too tight, causing the little thing to wail in pain. "S-sorry Col." With shaking hands he took the little thing from his shoulders and placed him on the ground below where the little thing buried his face in the back of the boy's jeans.

"Now usually I'd tell you to leave, take the TARDIS back to Earth and just leave it there. But we both know why we can't do that, so I have to ask for your help Zachary Birch." The holographic image was not looking directly at him, but at the time machine doors. Shuffling along the walk way, he dragged Collin to the side, still peering at the Doctor, wondering what on Earth he had done to himself.

"You stupid _stupid _man." He muttered under his breath and gave a great shake of his head, black waves of hair landing in front of his eye's.

And then, quite suddenly the hologram turned, catching the boy quite of guard and he had to throw his hands up against his mouth to stop the scream that wanted to erupt from his throat. The Doctor's eyes bored into his own and his legs began to shake. The sudden realisation that this man's life was now in his own when it should have been firmly the other way around.

"Hope you've got a pen and paper Zachy boy, here's what you need to do."

X

The first thing that hit the Doctor was the smell. That seemed to be happening allot to him lately but it was quite an intense stench. It forced its way into the back of his throat where in lingered until he awoke groggily. Coughing, he rose himself to all fours and felt the ground beneath him. It was thick with grime and something to the liken of straw and he realised the smell was the stench of too many body's too close together for along period of time.

Vision blurry, he tried to use his hearing to figure out where he was. Something scuttled behind him and the Doctor turned his head a little too quickly, causing dizziness to blind him and hot bile retched up into his throat. He vomited something thick and milky onto the floor, silently apologising to whatever had to live in the already squalled conditions. There were suddenly cool hands pressed up against the side of his face and the Doctors first reaction was to push them away until he realised what it was.

His vision slowly came back to him and he was peering up into the face of an adolescent female Kemonomimi. Her face was gaunt and dark circles ruled the space underneath her eyes. But never the less she smiled at him, and ran her dirt encrusted hands against the Doctors cheeks.

"Oh, hello there." Said the Doctor, his memory suddenly coming back to him. He took the girls hands in his own as he sat back on his haunches and it was then that he was able to get a good look at her. No older than fourteen at most, she was heavily pregnant and not in the best state of health, her droopy sandy ears showed to that. Her swollen stomach and breasts pressed heavily against dirty covered garments that he could only assume she had been given once the breeder had her in his hands.

Looking around, he saw many other females. There must have been twelve or so in one cramped little space. But with those twelve came many tiny little children, each one of them clinging to its parents with grubby little hands but wide eye's that only a child could poses.

The Doctor could only stare at them all in disbelief. None of the Kemonomimi where older enough to talk, not even the pregnant ones. On their own planet, they were still all very much infants and what had been done to them was almost unthinkable, at least where their species are concerned.

"Oh look at all of you." He remarked but as he attempted to get to his feet, the girl only pushed him back down and gave a great sharp shake of her head. Hair rippled down her back, matted and tangled and he felt so sorry for her right then. They where a proud race, a very clean race that had been subjected to filth and misery. No one deserved that.

He noticed there were no teenage males inside of the cage and he could only assume they were in another part of the building. It was certainly a cell he was in. A very dark and dank cell with a locked bolted metal door, but if only he could get to it. Whenever he tried to get up though, the pregnant cat would push him back down. This infuriated the Doctor for a moment until he saw the look of panic in her eyes.

"What's wrong, what's the matter? Look, I'm the Doctor; I'm going to help you get out of here." He turned towards the rest of the room. "I'm going to help all of you and I'll take you back home to your parents, your planet." They all just stared him with wide eyes though until a large noise made each and every one of them gasp. The little ones began to mew and cry when the sound of doors where banged and pushed against the walls. Someone or something barked orders here and there and suddenly footsteps came up towards the room they were all locked in.

The pregnant girl grabbed a hold of the Doctor and dragged him to his feet; she pulled him over to the little gathering of terrified children and pushed him behind them all. She was certainly the eldest of them all and despite her gaunt appearance and frail little arm's, she stood in front of the children and him with a very protective air about her.

The Doctor felt himself being pushed down by the other cats, each one of them doing their up most best with their sheer numbers to hide him. The smell was terrible, but the Doctor knew when to grateful and kept his mouth firmly shut.

"He's in here someone! He fell into one of the habitats, check them all!" It was the android who had tricked him. Right then, the Doctor felt as if his pride and ego had been rudely stepped on and he took back everything he said about being sorry for taking her personality. He hadn't made a silly mistake in such a long time that he almost forgotten what the feeling felt like. It hurt and he felt foolish and silly, hidden amongst children, hiding from something that he hadn't even gotten the name too.

The door was slammed open and light flooded the dank little room, making it even more dismal than it had been before. The girl hissed at the android that entered the room, and heavily masked men behind her clicked their guns into position. They were dressed from head to toe in black, their skin and eye's hidden from view. The Doctor had a funny feeling that they too were not real, but another little set of robots. Clearly this breeder didn't want to get his hands dirty, besides, robots can't smell anything.

The time Lord heard the distinct crack of someone being back handed and he watched helplessly as the girl cowered on the floor, rubbing her hands protectively over her swollen abdomen. He attempted to get to her, but the other girls kept their positions and kept him beneath them.

"Search the male chambers, he can't have gone far!" The android left, they all left and the Doctor let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. But something bothered him though. Where did that voice go? The one that had greeted him?

The girls and the other children moved away from the Doctor, each one of them cooing and purring at the man. A child no older than ten helped him to his feet before she rushed over to the girl on the ground. He followed and knelt beside her, pressed his hand gently up against her stomach.

"Don't worry." He told her. "I never go back on my promises." After helping her to sit, he peered upwards into the darkness and he supposed even with super sight he would never see where the ceiling or the door that he fell through was.

He only hoped that Zachary was safe. The last thing he wanted was the boy falling into the androids hands. If they where breeding the Kemonomimi, then God only knew what they would do to him.

**To Be Continued…**

**A/N: **My love for all thing Hitchhikers crops up again I see. I listened to No Doubts, trapped in a box not too long ago and the resemblance to the Doctor and the TARDIS is almost uncanny. And yes that would be a Watchmen T-shirt Zachary is sporting and who knew celery lasted that long?

This chapter is dedicated to my beautiful boyfriend. He knows why.


	5. Chapter 5

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket  
**Author:** Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)  
**Rating:** 14 +  
**Genre:** Drama/Action/Mystery?  
**Disclaimer:** The Doc belongs to the BBC. Only Zach, Collin and the plot belong to me so I apologise for this brain burp that happened.  
**Summary:** "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people." Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way?

Chapter 5:

"Really, dental floss?" Zachary regarded the list of things the holographic Doctor had reeled off to him. He was sure he had a missed a few items as the dammed thing had started to speak before he could even locate piece of paper and an actual pen that would work. The first one was chewed all the way through and the second one turned to jelly in his hands.

"I am going to buy a box of pens!" He had shouted at the inside of the TARDIS, but it stayed quiet as usual, only whirring and humming away to its self. With a shake of his head, he regarded the list again before grabbing the rucksack. It felt like it weighed a metric tonne and Zachary had never exactly been the strongest of boys. With a great gulp of breath he shifted the bag up onto his shoulders, wobbled for three whole seconds before righting himself. Grabbing Collins hand he made his way towards the door but stopped when he reached them.

Zachary was a coward. In school he'd been tormented by a bunch a boys from his year and instead of facing them he had hidden himself away in his house. He'd leave school early or would wait until it was exceptionally late to ever venture out. If anything, it had destroyed his social life for almost a year until one of the boys had been quite suddenly knocked down by a car. Suddenly, beating up skinny little Zachary Birch was not high on the agenda. But this was not going to go away so easily.

The Doctor had asked for his help, so why was he having second's thoughts? Call it a hunch, but everything was feeling more and more like a trap. Having in faith in the Doctor though, he gave a great shake of his head and squeezed Collins hand. The little cat boy regarded him for a second before grinning up at him, tiny little fangs shining in the TARDIS light.

Zachary beamed.

X

The Doctor stood in the middle of the containment cell and peered around him. Only the tiniest trickle of light came from the bolted door, but that was not the problem. They knew he had landed down with the prisoners and were now searching fruitlessly for him, but he had no idea where to go. Once he got out of the cell, he wouldn't know which way to turn to find this illusive breeder and would be walking quite blindly. With one almighty sigh he found himself crouching by the door, sonic screwdriver in hand with the children at his back.

Turning towards them he held up his hands and showed them the screw driver. A little smirk worked into the corner of his mouth. Then he placed his fingers on his lips and indicated to them that they had to keep quiet.

"I'll come back for you. Stay." It all sounded very patronising inside his head, but that seemed to be only way to communicate with the little things until they learnt to speak. For that, they would need their own parents back on their own planet and the Doctor was determined to get them there.

"I'll come back for you; I promise I won't leave you here." His eye's rested on the pregnant teenager with her matted sandy hair. Moving forwards, she grasped his hands in her own and held them tightly before moving her whole body forward. The Doctor stayed perfectly still as she rubbed her cheek up against his and a low purr escaped her throat. The others began to crowd him, doing the exact same thing and a bemused Doctor sat there and smiled at them. They were sent marking him, using inbuilt glands in their cheeks and it was certainly an honour.

"Okie, okie." He nodded with a laugh and gently pulled them away from himself. The girl tutted at the others to move away from the door and they did so without any questions, leaving the Time Lord be. One quick scan of his screwdriver and the bolts to the door slid open with a satisfying, if not loud, clunk. The little cats gasped and the Doctor winced. They stayed in silence for a few seconds but nothing came charging towards the door and every single being in the room let out a breath they didn't know they had been holding.

With that, the Doctor turned towards the pregnant girl and grinned at her. "Won't be long!" And with that he slipped from the room, took one glance down the corridor and sped the other way, his converse hitting the ground with a satisfying slap.

"Urm, Collin. I don't suppose you had any idea where the Doc went, do you?" It occurred to Zachary, when they reached the market, that he had no idea where the Doctor had gone or who it was he was after, other than the illusive breeder. The person he was after must have beeen the one who had caused the Doctor to fall unconscious. Nobody made the Doctor unconscious though; he was too good for that.

"_Oh, that's because I'm smart Zachy boy._" His words echoed around his head and the boy felt his shoulders sag and not from just the weight of the bag.

"What am I doing?!" He shouted to the heavens, causing a few passer bys and shoppers to regard him for a moment.

"I'm just a stupid kid, I've not even been…Ak!" He lashed out with his foot, hitting the side of a stall. Pain screamed up his leg and caused him to shout out again, balling his fits up to his side before he hung his head. He could feel the presence of Collin, patting his leg soothingly but he could not even bring himself to look at the little boy. Slowly, his shoulders began to shake and the boy felt angry tears at the back of his eyes. But he refused to cry and wiped at his face furiously with his fists.

"Crying never got anyone anywhere child." Zachary snapped his head up, that strange voice calling to him again. He peered over his shoulder at the old woman who had spoken to him before. Instead of walking towards her though he turned back around and took a hold of Collins hand.

"You will not admit it, but you cannot handle this." She heaved herself up from the chair she had yet to vacate and very nearly glided over to Zachary, resting just behind him. Collin turned and hid behind the older boys legs, smearing his face into the denim of his jeans.

"What would you know?" The boy spat angrily and he felt heat upon his arms. With a quick glance he peered down at himself and watched as gooseflesh ran up and down his unjacketed skin. Sighing, he closed his eyes and willed that anger away. Envisioning himself smacking a hard brick wall always did the trick, but it also left his fingers tingling.

"A fair amount child. He will humble you and you will not understand why. This greatest gift you could give to him but he will only smile at you and refuse and you will not understand, and you never will." Her voice carried in the wind, every other noise was drowned out and she was the only thing that mattered right at that moment. With a scowl he spun around to face her.

Gasping, he stared at her for right before his eye's she aged and considerably so. Before, she had appeared to have been no older than seventy. Now she was a hunched over frail being of at least ninety, if not older. Hair once the colour of dark chocolate was now a frightening colour of white, frizzled and untamed like the aged wrinkles on her face.

"A-Are you okie?" He asked and he wondered whether he should help her to sit back down again. No one else in the market seemed to notice an aging old woman before him, only he and Collin stared intently at her face. The little cat cowered behind Zachary's legs and so the boy found he could not reach her without shaking Collin off.

"And it will stay with you for the rest of your days until the day he loses yet another one and your mother will hold you in her arms and you shall be hailed as the Time Lords great ally." She pointed a withered old hand at him and the little cat began to drag him backwards, to the best of his ability. After all, he was only three and could not quite pull a fully grown being, no matter how short he was.

"But never the greatest." She gasped, struggling for air. "For that title is yet to be passed down. But warn the Lord of Time you must, for the Twelfth son will be upon him sooner than he realises." She collapsed to the floor, hitting the cobbled ground hard and Zachary shrugged the bag from his shoulders and rushed to her side, taking her withered old hand in his own. It felt dry to the touch, as if she would crumble away into nothing. Her gaunt face peered up at his own terrified one; her dark black eye's seeking into his own.

"How brightly you shine child, but you must go to him. Take the child." She was slumped in his lap, her hand held tightly in his own. With her other, she raised it towards a nearby alley way. "There is where we must go." Zachary contemplated this in his mind before nodded his head. Calling Collin over, the little cat timidly stood behind the boy.

"Hold her hand." He took the boys hand and pressed it into the old woman's. It was almost nothing but dry skin and bone and the cat gave a high distressed noise. Having no time to comfort him though, Zachary rushed over to bag and heaved it back onto her shoulders before stumbling towards the old woman. He picked her up and cradled her in his arms, but it was as if she weighed nothing at all, her shawls where the only give away that he was actually carrying anything at all.

"Show me where to go."

X

The Doctor sped through the various hallways and corridors, sonic screwdriver in hand as he attempted to reach the depth of the strange building. Skidding to a halt, he paused at a control panel that beeped as he ran past. The screwdriver beeped back in response before it was thrust quite violently at the panel.

"Ooo you're a beauty you are. Designed to control the outlook of this building, to pass it off as nothing more than a wall in the alley ways. But what are you hiding, come on where are you?" He intensified the screwdriver and had to hold it with both hands to keep control of it. The control panel before him beeped louder and louder until "snap" smoke billowed from the sides. Jumping back, the Time Lord watched as the panel fell to the side and then completely slipped from the wall, hitting the ground with a large "thunk".

A smile curled onto the Doctors lips before he took a cautious step forward. The first panel had been a fake and here before him lay the real one.

"Now where are you Mr. Breeder? I've got a few choice words to say to you." He scanned the inside panel, his dark chocolate eye's running back and forth before he tilted his head skyward. "The only way is up." He muttered before giving a great nod of his head, wild hair bouncing about his head before he ran a hand through it.

"GET HIM!"

Sometimes the Doctor had a habit of staring off into space, far too caught up in what he was doing to really pay attention to anything around him. It was just at that point that he had not heard the rabble of footsteps, but the Time Lord was never one to let fear get to the better of him.

"Who me?" He asked with a beaming grin, pointing his finger idly at himself. The android woman appeared in view looking fit to burst and the Doctor wondered whether she was ready to blow a casket? The black covered men charged towards him with guns at the ready but the Doctor was just as prepared.

"See ya!" He pointed his screwdriver to the ground, twisted one of the dials and zapped it at the floor. The floor disappeared between him and the men and as he stepped back, he took more of it with him. It vanished to the ground below, and the Doctor considered it quite lucky that there was no one walking in the underneath corridor. He watched as the men toppled on top of each other, pulling themselves down into the pits below. It was not too far a drop, so the Doctor was not so concerned he'd hurt them, not too badly anyway.

"Hope you don't mind, but I've got an appointment to keep." With that he grinned at the female android, spun around on his feet and sprinted down the rest of the hallway, ducking around one of the corners. Now all he had to do was locate the nearest staircase/elevator/pulley system and then he could wiggle himself into the breeder's lair.

"Ooo lair, I like that." He grinned, hair wobbling madly to the side. He had considered a hair cut but he had also had an incline that there would be no point. A young man with long wild hair and his clothes. Strange.

Having located a set of winding stairs, the Doctor wasted no time in throwing himself up them. When he threw his head skywards though he inwardly groaned at the sheer amount of steps he would have to run up. That was if the android didn't get him. Oh he had no worries about being shot; this breeder seemed to want him for some unknown reason.

"Wait a minute." The Doctor stood still and tilted his head to the side, considering his predicament. He needed a way to get to the breeder and he had before assumed the android woman would take him straight to his desired location. However, she had thrown him down into the jail cells with the other captors. Therefore, it was not him they actually wanted, which only left one person.

"Zachary."

The Doctor gave a short shake of his head and turned midpoint on the stair case. He stood quite still with his hands casually in his pockets, simply staring and waiting. The sounds of footsteps came closer but he made no attempt at running. Finally, the men in black where upon him and guns where clicked his way. Stuns guns by their appearance, late 29th century if he was being accurate. The Kemonomimi where from the 1408th century Earth time, certainly a large gap but the Doctor would get to that when the time again. Firstly though…

The blonde android walked between her men, her hands perched upon her hips. She regarded the Doctor for almost a minute in silence before raising her fingers to her lips, tutting at him with a smile upon them.

"Such a naughty Doctor." She scolded playfully but the Doctor didn't react.

"What do you want with Zachary Birch?" His question was plain and simple and the woman regarded him a little more, tilting her head to the side.

"Why do you name him so?"

"Because that's his name, now answer the question." The Doctor stepped down the steps, taking no notice of any the guns suddenly pointed in his general direction. Not until he was up close and personal with the robot did he ask her a second time.

"Answer the question."

"No." The woman blinked at him, her dark murky eye's brightened for just a moment. "You answer mine."

"Oh I don't think so, but you've let me get this closer breeder."

"I'm not-" The Doctor grabbed a hold of her arm, and spun her around with his screwdriver pointed just between her shoulder blades. The guns where clicked off safety and he waited.

"SHOOT HIM!" She ordered but nothing came. Banging her stilettos loudly on the floor she ordered them again, but no response. "They won't listen to you, you're not in charge of them. Just other mindless machines programmed to do one thing and one thing only; scare. Now you're going to answer my question. What do you want with Zachary Birch, breeder?"

"I keep telling you I'm not the-" The Doctor pulled on her arm again and she growled in frustration. "Can't hurt a robot, but I could just as happily pull your arm off." He spun her around, hands digging into her shoulder blades. Peering into her eye's he gritted his teeth.

"You're using her as your eyes aren't you breeder. You're little link to your creatures and the whole world. I just bet you've got camera's everywhere." Glancing upwards he caught sight of the CCTV camera mounted upon the wall and gave a small nod of his head.

When he looked back at the android, she appeared blank before giving a great shake of her head, pushing the Doctor away. "My master orders me to take you too him and to formally apologise for my rude behaviour from before." She bowed her head almost in shame, but the Doctor saw how much it took her to do one simple thing.

"He's not really your master is he? What's your name?" The Doctor asked but she only firmly shook her head again and walk towards the hallways they had previously come from.

"The stair case leads to nowhere Doctor, follow me if you please." The Doctor had had an incline and gave a shrug of his shoulders. He followed her in silence and the men in black lowered their guns, almost acting as if he was never there. It was strange, and the Time Lord just couldn't put his mind on it.

"My name is Eve." The woman said quietly, pressing her hand upon the wall of the corridor. It systematically slid apart in a blast of steam revealing a lift within. Hydraulics at work or as far as the Doctor could tell. As he stepped in after Eve he tilted his head to the side and peered at her until the doors close.

"He's not really your master Eve, is he now?" She was silent, only stared at the door as the lift began to move. "You're one of the Ferst, aren't you? The two hundred and twenty seventh century if I'm right. New, New, New, New Earth. How did you get here Eve?"

"My master is a collector of all things Doctor, even a Time Lord such as you… and the boy."

"What of him."

Eve turned, her blonde hair cascading around her and she seemed so much more unreal than she had moment before. When the Ferst became sad, they seemed less real and imperfect. It was a flaw in their design but somehow it made them see far more human than they really were.

"You know what he is Time Lord."

"Of course."

The doors to elevator slid open before either Eve or the Doctor could further their questions.

"My master is through there."

The Doctor nodded his head and made to move forward, but he felt a gentle hand upon his arm. Turning, he looked at her and she peered up at him, her eyes seemingly less real, more doll like.

"I'm sorry Doctor. You can't keep him."

"Ahh the Lord Of Time, just in time, JUST IN TIME!" A voice boomed over head but before the Doctor had time to react, rope like devices flung outwards and entwined themselves with him. They yanked him forward quite violently and the elevator doors slid closed.

"We're lost aren't we!" Zachary gritted his teeth together and it took all his might not to simply drop the old woman on to the floor. He peered down at her but she only looked forwards, her old gnarled hands clutched into his t-shirt.

"And this bag weighs a tonne." He moaned before trying to blow a dark strand of hair out of his eyes. It had become stuck with sweat, plastered to his forehead. His clothes to had become soaked through with sweat and he gathered that he didn't smell too good either. All that didn't seem to matter now as Collin attempted to drag him forward by the belt loops in his jeans.

"Where now?" He asked the old woman desperately, her eye's scanning everywhere but Zachary's highly anxious face.

"Onwards….five more steps….child…five more." She wheezed before trying to suck up more breath, her rattled voice sent shivers down the boys spin but he did as he was told and took five more steps.

"Stop!" She ordered and the pair of them came to a standstill in the depths of the catacombs. "Here child…turn…turn straight…le-left."

Zachary bit his lips but did as he was told and was faced with a very large brick wall, not complete with any kind of door or any way to get inside. "Now what?" He asked but when he looked down at the woman she simply peered at him, her face turning gaunter as the seconds passed on.

"You…you do well…Zachary Birch." And in his arms she took her last final breath before turning to mere ash. Horrified, he looked on and wide eyed as she slipped from his arms, dry hard bones smacking the ground below and all he was left with was her brittle skull in his hands.

"What do I do!" He shouted at it. "HOW DO I SAVE HIM!"

Collin had began to cry from somewhere behind him and before he knew what he was doing he hurled the skull as hard as he could at the wall. It smashed into pieces, crumbling before his feet. His shoulders gave a great shake before he reeled back his fist and went to punch the wall like he had never punched something before.

However, his fist kept going and he felt his feet stumble forward. The weight on his back sent him off balance and he tripped face first into a hard wood floor, the bag tumbling with him. The force of hitting the ground sent warm blood gushing through Zachary's nose and he groaned in both pain and frustration. After a few minutes of feeling foolish on the ground, the boy forced himself to his feet, bag and all.

He watched as blood gushed from his nose and dripped on down his T-shirt. The smiley face on his chest kept on grinning innately though, unaware of the dust of alien remains and blood spatters. With the back of his arm, Zachary wiped away as much blood as he could before gently poking at his nose. Hissing from the pain that shot up into his head he decided it was best to just leave it be, perhaps the Doctor would be able to look at it. That was, if they ever found the Doctor.

Chewing on the side of his lip he peered over at Collin still stood inside the alley way. The poor thing looked terrified beyond his years and it was only then that the boy realised where he had taken his young friend. With one hand pressed against his nose, Zachary held out his other, fairly clean, hand.

"You can go back to the TARDIS if you want, that's okie." And it would be okie, it would be undoubtedly cruel to make the little thing go back to where it had been trying to escape from in the first place. At least the terror on the child's face, if nothing else, told him that this was where the person who was breeding them was.

Timidly, Collin stepped forward and gingerly took a hold of Zachary's hand. They turned and walked hand in hand into the darkness and Zachary prayed to whatever deity was watching them, to keep them all safe.

Or at least alive.

**To be Continued…**

**A/N:** I really dislike this chapter. I also have a peculiar feeling this fan dribble is going to be longer than I anticipated. I want to point out that I'm trying to keep Zachary fairly normal. (Fairly). He's not going to be the Mary Sue saviour and he's certainly not going to win the Doctors heart. But you will find out about him in the next chapter. After all, there must be some reason an unwilling boy decides to up and travel with the Doctor…


	6. Chapter 6

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket  
**Author:** Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)  
**Rating:** 14 +  
**Genre:** Drama/Action/Mystery?  
**Disclaimer:** The Doc belongs to the BBC. Only Zach, Collin and the plot belong to me so I apologise for this brain burp that happened.  
**Summary:** "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people." Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way?

Chapter 6:

Hand in hand, the two boys walked timidly into the room that had opened before them. The "door" slid close behind them but Zachary could not recall ever hearing one open, or seeing one for that matter. However, he had to assure himself that he was on a different world now and most certainly in a different time period, anything could happen. With a deep breath he ventured forward with only a rucksack full of nonsence, a toddler not old enough to speak and himself. All of this to find one man, to save one man who had most certainly wriggled his way out of more dire situations.  
None of that mattered. The Doctor had fought in wars; Zachary knew that, it was simply there on his face whenever an emergency situation would arise. It was the same with his grandfather. His mother's father would get such a look upon his face when anything to do with the war in the Middle East was mentioned. Both the Time Lord and Zachary's Grandpa shared that look and he believed them to be both such strong men. Such important men in his life, both turning to terrified little boys right before his eyes. Something about that scared him but it also made him smile. It made something about the Doctor seem a little more real than when he first met him. But that day happened so fast, it was still too much of a crazy blur for Zachary to figure out right then.

What he currently had to figure out was where he was going, yet again. This time though he didn't have the aided help of a dying old woman. His insides squirmed ever so slightly at the thought of her, the feel of her decayed dried flesh upon his skin. Nightmares, he'd be having them for weeks.  
With a quick scan of his surroundings, Zachary noted a little corridor further ahead and gently pulled on Collin's hand. The little child toddled on after him, his fingers coated in drool; his wide eye's scanning about the walls. The whole place had an eerie dentist waiting room feeling to it and the boy didn't have the best teeth in the world or a brilliant track record with dentists. When he was five, he had bit one when the nasty old thing had shoved a latex covered finger deep into his throat. It had, of course, been completely by accident but that had not stopped little Zachary from sinking his gnashers in. There had been an awful lot of blood from one little bite and a heck of a fuss over the whole ordeal. Zachary had not seen the big problem at the time, no more icky dentist.

Thinking of such tedious things helped him to collect his thoughts. To think past the gore on his t-shirt and to simply find the Doctor, where ever he was. Pausing half way down the dimly lit corridor he let go of Collins hand and pulled the bag from his back, letting in land with a loud clunk onto the linoleum covered floor. Inwardly he cringed and waited for the sounds of sirens. But nothing came and no one had been alerted to his presence. Either that or they didn't find the look of one vertically challenged twenty two year old, a toddler and a bag to be very threatening. Zachary didn't blame them if he was thinking honestly.

Opening the bag, he peered at the contents inside. "Protocol 42, standard Doctor rescuing equipment." Tucking a stray strand of hair behind his ears he looked at Collin. The little thing was stood on tiptoes trying to peer into the bag before he attempted to reach inside of it. Looking on, Zachary watched him pull out several things; an pulley system from an old fishing rod, several boxes of dental floss, a concentrated bottle of pear juice, several bananas and a grappling hook. The hook was the only thing that made sense to Zachary but who was he to question the Doctor and his own survival kit.

Without warning, Collin stepped inside the bag with the other various bits of bobs and began to pull stuff back into the bag with him.  
"Col, what are you doing? We can't play now!" Zachary fairly hissed between his teeth but the little boy simply looked at him before raising a finger to his lips. Ducking his head down, he curled up into the tightest ball possible.

"Oh, you're hiding." He visibly frowned at the nearest wall, but his expression softened when he noted the terror in the little cat's eyes. With a sigh, he supposed brining him along had been one of the silliest decisions he'd ever made. This was the place he had tried to escape from, that and the market. It had only confirmed in his mind that this was where the breeder was but everything looked so…sterile. Colin had been filthy, and it looked as if years of dirt had accumulated so it simply could not have been one journey naked in the alley a shake of his head, he heaved the bag back onto his back and grunted at the new extra weight he had to maintain. However, Collin was a very good little ball of weight; he hardly made a squeak at all.

Zachary began to make his way up the corridor once more, weaving this way that and having absolutely no clue where he was going. It seemed to be that he was simply going around and around in circles. There was no sign of a lift or any stair case anywhere. Having tried the doors, they turned out locked and unfortunately for him, he didn't possess a sonic screwdriver. Groaning, he decided his only option would be to alert anything to his presence. "I've come for the Doctor and I'm not leaving without him, by the way!" Nothing, not even a nosey face out of one of the doors.

"Well…well fine then. I'll just leave. The Doctor could take you on any day; he's like that you see." The silence was beginning to unnerve Zachary but he pressed forward and looked upwards at the ceiling.

"You have terrible taste in décor and I'm alerting both the RSPCA and Human rights to the fact that you subjected people to this snot shade of green." Still nothing and slowly but surely, Zachary was starting to lose his temper.

" Dammit! GIVE ME HIM BACK!" Zachary clutched his hands at his sides, balling them into fists. The corridor filled with warm air that began to get gradually warmer. The flesh upon his skin began to prickle and every single hair upon his body stood to strict attention.  
"Either give me him back, or I burn this place to the ground…and everyone with it."  
From the top of the breeder's house, the Doctor looked on horrified at the screen pressed in front of his face. Tight organic binds held him firmly onto the wall, slithering and snaking across his body and mouth. There was no way he could reach his screwdriver, his hands firmly bound outwards, almost painfully so.

"Lord of Time, what little treat you've brought for me." The voice slimed its way across the Doctor worse than the appendences holding him. It was the sound of a voice filled with years gone mad, only with your schizophrenic voices to keep you company. Each one in turn had its own problems and all of it escaped from the creature in front of him.

He, for it was certainly male, stood before him at roughly five foot five. It wore a perfectly knitted tweed suit over its slightly protruding stomach. A portly man of around fifty or so, he walked towards the Doctor in neat polished loafers that squeaked happily as he moved forward. There was a thinning of hair on top of his head, nothing that a good comb over certainly would not fix.  
All in all, a rather normal looking middle aged man. His puce coloured skin and vivid yellow eye's gave the game away though and the Doctor knew instantly what he was.

"What love this creature must feel for you, it's perfect! A perfect combination, yes. Yes!" The man clenched his teeth together and turned on the spot, hurrying like a child over towards his monitors. Pressing his hands up towards the screen he reeled over Zachary's screaming image and flicked his tongue out across the glass. The sound of static rang out in the silence of the room, and the Doctor could only look on hopelessly.

Onuphrius was a race of very few beings. They where scatted about the universe in a handful of only a hundred or so. They had the unfortunate habit of eating their young but that was not what the Doctor was concerned about. They mated for life, so if this was the male then where was his female. All this talking of breeding sounded as if he was ready to settle down, but he was certainly going about it the wrong way.

But they were smart, intelligent but most of all they were all completely insane by normal people's standards.

"Oh I must have it up here this second, not a moment to lose. Hmm Yes!" He clapped his hands together with a satisfied crack before scuttling back over to the Doctor. The time Lord could not decide which was worse, Zachary burning the place down or Zachary in the breeder's hands.  
"Then we can begin!" He raised his slightly chubby hand towards the Doctors brow and pushed a few strands of hair to the side. The Doctor's eye's flickered upwards before he winced, the feeling of hair being pulled from the roots made him snarl into the binds at his mouth. "I'll need much more than this. Hair, blood, tissue, the works but all that will have to wait until we have the Seraphim."

The Doctors eye's snapped from the screen towards the Onuphrius where they met across the ghostly glare of the computer monitors. "Oh of course I know what he is Doctor, what do you take me for? No, no, I simply had to lure you here under false pretences that I can assure you have taken me years to perfect. Had to get everything perfect. The Ferst, the cats, the machine! Oh yes my machine, as a fancier of Time good sir I'm sure you'll take a liking to her!" With that he bustled across the other side the darkly lit room and whipped a lumpy sheet from something bulky secluded in the corner.

And it was then the Doctor felt his heart sink. There before him was a crude machine, its interior complete with various tubes of harsh coloured liquid. It spluttered steam and smoke, whirring away with a noise that only a Time Lords ship could make. It was a partially grown TARDIS. An infant, it barely had a dint on his own grander, yet temperamental, machine. It was bolted to the floor but the Doctor highly doubted that the rest of the breeder's house was a TARDIS. However, it was bigger on the inside and this worried the Time Lord greatly.

"Well?" The breeder waited with a smile so bright on his face. "What do you have to say?" A chord slithered from the Doctors mouth and he was free to speak once again. But he was stunned into silence for the first time in a long while. It did not take long to find what he was going to say though.  
"How…How did you get hold of a TARDIS?" Was the first of many questions that the Doctor intended to ask? The breeder simply stared at him before a sudden wash of sadness swam over his expression.  
"That's all you care about, isn't it?" His shoulders sagged and he dropped the sheet that covered the time machine. "I do all of this, all of it for you! Just for you Lord of Time and that is the only thing you can say."

"I'm sorry, really I am." The Doctor could see that the creature was terribly wrong. It had not paired up; it had no love when it should be basking in it. It was the only way their species survived, to combat the loneliness and voices travelling around in their heads.  
"But you'll see Doctor, I'll make you see. The boy, he'll understand." It was as if the Doctor had not spoken and he started at the monitor. Zachary was running now to the best of his ability down the endless halls and corridors. None of the doors would open for him and no one came to collect him. He ran blindly, screaming at every chance he could get.

"You promised me Doctor! You said you'd get me home and that everything would be all right!"

"No." Said the Doctor as he too looked at the boy on the screen. "He won't understand."  
"Yes he will! Persuading the older one was had, but this one. He'd just an infant, he'll understand."  
"What older one?" The Doctor turned his head the best he could towards the Breeder and the creature looked up at him, a sad sort of smile creeping up onto his face.

"The Seraphim of course. To make sure you would arrive like you do. Swooping in and saving the human kind, just another rescue mission. But only, this one was different. The scan for life was the same. The pray and the hunter one of the same and it was then that you knew."  
"You. You sent the other Seraphim after him! It could have destroyed that planet. He could have destroyed it!" Violently he jerked his head towards the screen but the Breeder only nodded his head with a smile attached.

"Six billion people nearly died, a whole planet nearly blown to bits by one terrified little boy. Whatever for?"  
"Because Doctor." His face turned solemn now as he approached the man strapped and bound to the wall. Held prisoner by one of the most deluded creatures he had ever encountered, excluding the Daleks.

"I intend to breed you."

_One Month Ago_

Was he dead? Because if so, he would be having strong words with management. Pain rushed to the top of head, kindly reminding him that he, or someone, had firmly hit it. However, he was not sure what the offending article had been and with eyes still closed he pressed his fingers gingerly to the top of head. It felt slick with blood, cold and congealing upon his fingers. With a groan he attempted to sit up but someone eased him back down. Underneath felt soft, as if he was laid out on a couple of blankets or even perhaps a bed. But that was insane, because hell would not have mattress.

Something cool pressed around his lips and cold liquid pooled into his parched mouth. Soon he was drinking greedily from the bottle but refused to open his eyes. If he could only prolong the feeling, then maybe he would never have to open his eyes again. All of this could remain unreal and in a few moments he would wake up back in his student house. Johnny would have sellotaped his door shut and Tom would have eaten the last of the bread. Just another typical day before trudging up to either the university or work.

"Zachary. Zachary can you hear me?" But that voice most certainly was not of Satan or even his housemates. A groan passed his lips and slowly he began to open his eyes. A soft dull light was the first thing he saw. It was mounted to the wall light an ordinary house lamp, but the intricate metal work made him stare at it. It was the most ordinary thing in the room with its sweeping metal curves and delicate little silver leaves embedded into it.

"Satan has really peculiar taste." Where the first words that left his lips and he heard someone snort in front of him.  
"Satan?" The voice asked again and the boy turned his head slowly as not to cause dizziness. Too late, the room span and nausea pooled into his stomach and forced its way up into his throat. Hot bile scorched at his throat and he lent over the side of the bed. It splattered into a metal bowl cupped in a man's hands, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows.

"Take it easy, there we go. It's a good job I'm a Doctor. Well, not quite that kind of Doctor but it's always handy to have one around."

Groaning, the black haired youth clutched at the side of the bed. "It's you." Now he knew he was in neither hell nor his house. Instead, he was back with the Doctor and his strange "bigger on the inside" box. At least he presumed that was where he was. The strange organic beams intertwined themselves around the bedroom they were in and he felt himself staring at them for a few moments. That was before the Doctor moved the bowl and attempted to look at the wound on his head. When his hands came within reach of him, Zachary scrambled across the bed and felt his back slam against a wall. Inwardly he winced and clutched the covers below him.

The Doctor only looked at him before letting his shoulders slump downwards, his hands pressed gingerly into his lap. He had removed his jacket and coat, even his tie was flicked over his shoulders. Concern was genuinely written across his face but Zachary distrusted anything with a box that broke the idea of physics and how the world worked. Then again, he had been chased by a creature that was certainly not from Earth. Who was he to distrust the one person that had seen the creature too?

"I'm not going to hurt you, I just need to see your head."  
"Why, you going to experiment on me or something?"  
"No. I either look at your head or you bleed all over the bed sheets, your call." The Doctor man slid backwards on the bed, his hands now sat quite perfectly still at his sides. Zachary sized him up and frowned, but the skin on top of his skull felt suddenly tight. With a wince he nodded his head slowly and attempted to half crawl, half shuffle over to the taller male. The man met him half way and took Zachary's head of dark wavy hair into his hands.

"Ooo sorry about that." He hissed at the sight of the wound but had to keep his fingers pressed into the boy's head so he could not wrench it out of his grip.  
"You did this!" He winced in pain but felt something cool seep over his head and the tightness began to subside just a little. The Doctor let go of his head to clean the wound and Zachary sat there and let him. Not over enthused about the whole thing, he gripped at his ruined jeans and peered down at his scraped knee's. They were still bloody and sore and looked as if they would need a good scrub with an antiseptic wipe.

"I had to. You where changing and we can't have that, your people would kill me. Not literally of course but I wouldn't be very popular with them anymore."

"My...People?" This man was certainly insane but Zachary had assumed that before anyway. He spoke as if he was not from Earth, and his space ship certainly gave away his status.  
"So...so you're an alien too. Like the other one." He asked and felt the sudden sting of antiseptic on his wound. It made him jump, but the Doctor was there to steady him.  
"Sort of." The Doctor said quietly. "Now this might sting about but I've numbed it the best I can."  
"What?"  
"Stitches."  
"Oh." Zachary muttered quietly but he kept perfectly still for the Doctor man. "So you're an alien, but not one of those out there. This is your ship and you hit me...with what?"  
"A two by four."  
"And you hit me with a two by four." Zachary grew quiet upon this revelation and frowned. "What did you do that for?"

There was a long pause as the Doctor began to stitch up the wound on Zachary's head. The boy felt a soft tugging at his skin but apart from a niggling itch, it as relatively pain free. His quick nimble fingers almost danced across his skin as he worked and he found himself looking about the room they were in. It was certainly a bedroom and they were both sat on a great kind sized bed. Its silken sheets rubbed against his hands and he found himself running it through his fingers. It almost didn't feel real, like water weaved into material. Looking up however, it was the first time his eyes scanned across the far wall. It was adored with hundreds upon hundreds of photographs.

Some where old, frayed and looked as if they had seen better days. Others were fairly recent, their A5 format still glossy to the touch. Black and white, serious and silly, polaroid and photo both. There in the centre, pride and place above the desk was the smiling portrait of a blonde girl. It looked as if it had been a spontaneous snap, her mouth wide in laughter but she looked so happy. She could not have been that much older, or indeed younger, than himself. A crop of blonde hair fell to her shoulders; her dark eye's so full of life and happiness. The sky behind her was a rich green, a zig zag of gold's and oranges spread out behind her.

Staring at the photo, he had not noticed that the Doctor had finished his stitches and was now staring at him intently as he washed his hands.  
"What's her name?" He asked and all notion that he was sat with a strange alien man in his space ship seemed to flutter straight out of the window. The Doctor was quiet for a moment until Zachary looked at him. He had shifted his gaze down to the little first aid box in his hands, holding out a little packet of antiseptic wipes, for his knee's most likely.  
"Rose. Her name was Rose."

"Was?" He paused and decided that it was simply none of his business and shook an odd feeling from himself. "Why did you hit me?"

"To stop you from changing into your true form, now clean your knee's or they're going to get infected." The man stood up and collected the wads of bloody cotton wool and wipes into the metal bowl of vomit. Without a word of protest, Zachary began to clean his knees. They did not sting as much as he first thought, but he needed to get as much dirt out of the scrapes as possible or they would start to heal infected. But he looked up though and watched the Doctor stare at the wall intently. He seemed lost, or alone. Maybe he was both but the boy was unsure as to why he cared so much.

"Do you ever feel alone Zachary Birch?" he heard the Doctors voice but continued to clean his knees. Everything was so confusing and his mind had begun to swim, a headache pulsing behind his eyes.  
"Sometimes." He muttered. That did not quite cover it though and he sat up slowly, resting his hands just above his ruined knees, peering at the frayed torn denim beneath him. He had never been especially close to his parents and as an only child he had no brothers and sisters to play with as he grew up. There was no one to put the blame when he was in trouble and no one to side with when his parents were being irrational. Every child thought the parent was a pain at some point though, but Zachary felt more.

"I...I used to think I was adopted." The words spilled from his mouth he could stop them, but he couldn't quite understand why he was telling this strange man.  
"You find out I'm an alien and you sit there quite perfectly."  
"Well one did just try to eat me but...but that's not it." Oh he was so confused. He put his head into his hands and rubbed at his tried eye's. Nothing made sense anymore and he was so tired of running around in circles.

"Just tell me." He muttered from the depth of his fingers and the Doctor turned towards him.  
"That creature chasing you is a Seraphim, from the Osiruus system. For some reason it doesn't like you. It tried to engage you in a fight, but for that you'd need to be in your true form."  
"And that would be?" The boy asked, going along with the mad man. A mad man that was turning out to be not so mad after all.

"A Seraphim, the same creature chasing you." There was a long pause of silence.

"Because that makes perfect sense!" Zachary threw his hands up into the air before staggering to his feet. The pain in his knees made him grunt but he looked for an exit at any rate before stumbling over towards it.

"I've been charged with protecting you." The doctor spoke calmly and did not make any such attempt to reach Zachary, nor to stop him from leaving the room.  
"The Seraphim's are quite a unique race. They learn inside the womb by warping time and space around them." He heard footsteps in the room but then nothing and he was still left facing the door, simply listening. "They choose an alien world and then create a body for themselves. They implant memories and change data to allow them to live in peace. Your parents couldn't have children and then one day you where there. An eight year old stood in their living room without any prior knowledge to who or what you where. Suddenly they remembered you where their son and years of memory's came flooding back to you. Do you remember Zach?"

Staring at the wood, he pressed the palms of his hands flat against it, his forehead resting upon it. "No." he whispered but the truth was laced through his silent words. He had thought he dreamt it.

There he stood, naked and alone upon a world he didn't know. There was something under his feet, a softness that ran across the whole room and when his blue eyes peered upwards they were faced with a man and a woman's; Earthlings. They where aged, well into their late forty's, early fifties, and they stared at him with mouths wide open. Who was this small naked child and where had he come from. Then suddenly they looked at him differently and recognition filled their eye's

"Zachary Trevor Birch, put some clothes on or you're going to catch your death of cold!" His mother had scolded him but the little eight year old only frowned and pulled his towel up from the floor. He'd been outside in the paddling pool and had to leave his trunks at the back door or he was going to drip water all over the carpet.

"That...That never happened. It...They were just...Just-"  
"Then you remembered everything from before and learnt everything new afterwards. It's how the Seraphim's gain knowledge. You live out your life completely unaware and then you die. Then you're born on your own planet and all your knowledge goes into a data bank. It saves on space travel; you never have to leave the comfort of your own planet."

"No...No it makes no sense, you're lying."

"I wish I was." The Doctor sighed and he heard him move over towards the door and gently reached out towards him. Zachary threw off his advances and opened the door quickly before stumbling outside into the depths of the corridor. It seemed ongoing, never ending and he spun around to face the Doctor. Wiping angry tears from his eyes as he glared at the now suited Doctor in the doorway. He only looked at him, a solemn expression on his face with his hands thrust deep inside his pockets.

"Tell me how to get out of here!"  
"I can't do that Zach. If I let you back out there the other Seraphim will engage in battle with you. Being in your true form on this planet will kill you on your own planet. Fourteen years you've been here Zach, that's why you don't look much older than a teenager."

"I'm twenty two! I'm at university in my third year studying ancient and modern history. I-I have..." He stopped though and felt his knee's give way under him. The Doctor was there to catch him though and he sank into the man's arms, forehead resting hard against his chest. It was then he heard it. The distinct sound that he would remember for the rest of his days; Ba-bump ba-bump, and then the same at the other side. Looking up at the Doctor he searched his face and the man only smiled at him. "You've got two hearts." He said stupidly and the Doctor smiled at him even wider, if that was even possible.

"Yes Zach."  
"And I'm an unborn Alien from the Osiruus system?"  
"Yes Zach"  
"And you're called the Doctor?" The man laughed and nodded his head. "That's my name."

"Your parents gave you a stupid name." Zachary sulked as he pushed himself away from the Doctor, landing on the floor beneath him. A smile came to the corner of his lips tough when the Doctor sat back with his fingers laced behind his head. "Are you going to be all right?" He asked the forlorn boy who only shrugged his shoulders in response. He looked up at Doctor then and regarded him for a moment.

"So you're like my intergalactic baby sitter, sent on a mission from my home world to make sure, what? That I don't get killed to early or so I don't destroy the planet?" He asked with an arch of his thick black eyebrow, crossing arms over his chest.

"A little bit of both really." The Doctor shrugged and peered upwards at the ceiling before looking back down at the corridor.

"I'm sorry, but you can't go back out there. I don't know what the other one wants with you, or why it wants you in the first place." He frowned suddenly. "It makes no sense really."

"You're telling me." Zachary muttered as he took queue from the Doctor and rested back on the wall. The Doctor only frowned again, a look of puzzlement over his face.

"No, it really doesn't make sense. The Seraphim's and a relatively peaceful race. It makes no sense to travel across the universe just to find you."

"Wait." The boy held his hand up towards the Doctor with a small look of annoyance of his face. "Why are they called Seraphim's, I thought they were angels or something."

"Or something." Was the Doctors' reply. "Every story has its inspiration. The last Seraphim was on Earth Ooo, about three thousand years ago, give or take a few decades." He gave a shrug and Zachary pondered in wonder. That three thousand years ago something like the creature outside had been on Earth. It was possibly unaware like he was, but somehow they found out and believed him or her to be an angel of the lord. Well, it could have been worse. They could have been herald as demons and so he supposed it all worked out well in the end. It did answer a few questions though, many of which his high school religious studies teacher would not been impressed hearing.

"Come to think of it." The Doctor said quietly. "His name was Zachariah, or at least that's what they called him. Hebrew I think…" He trailed of and Zachary had the sudden feeling of being told he'd lived in a past life and gave a roll of his eyes. "So they're not creative with names." With a shake of his head he pushed himself up off the floor and regarded the Doctor man for a few minutes.

"What are you going to do Zachary?" The Doctor asked him and the boy frowned.

"I…I don't know. My parents…Mum didn't even like me going off to uni. What are you going to do? You can't very well just lock me in here until I die, can you?" The boy felt himself staggering backwards along the corridor, his hands upon it for support but the man on the ground didn't even make any attempt to move.

"No. I want you to travel with me."

"Travel, like what, a gap year or something."  
"Something like that. Just until we figure out why he's chasing you and until we can get you back to your home planet."  
"That's…That sounds really weird when you say it."

"Hmm, I've been told that before. I've been told allot of things really. See your planet is hard to find, it might takes us a while." The Doctor held out his hand towards the boy and simply held it there. "What do you say?" He asked.

Zachary found himself staring at the Doctor's outstretched hand; there was no movement just his simple gaze. Slowly, he moved his own hand forward and grabbed the Doctors hands, sliding his fingers up towards his wrist. "That's you're insane but I suppose…yes, I'll travel with you."

_Now_

"The infants have such a wonderful structure, don't you think Doctor. If I can coax out his true form then I can breed it with your own DNA. No Halfling, no hybrid, just a full Time Lord!" The breeder exclaimed with excitement as he clapped his hands together. The look on his face was nothing but pure delight, compared to the Doctors horror.

"You…You're insane." He shook his head the best he could with the biding still around him but the breeder only beamed at him again his wide toothed grin growing ever more and more greater as the seconds passed on.

"It's just a myth! It's never been proven! It's…" The Doctor couldn't find the right words but the pit of his stomach felt tight with nausea. He had promised Zachary he would keep him safe, not to…to carry his time lord seed. That was the last thing on his mind, in fact that was so far from his mind that he was pretty certain that he had never thought of the idea before. He knew of course, of the myths of unborn Seraphim children.

They were so much more powerful that their parent. To be able to warp space and time around themselves. To create a creature to inhabit while it gained all of its knowledge. But then, if its true form was coaxed out, it would do either one of two things. Either blow up the planet it was currently residing on and kill it's self and parent while it was at it, or breed with the closest creature in proximity.

That way, it would prolong its life by ever how long the creature it bred with would gestate for. Theoretically, it was a miscarriage induced by the creature. It would give birth to a full, and not half, bred baby and then it would die peacefully. On its home world, the unborn child would also die but its parent would be left intact. But there was no official recording of something like that happening, and it was only a rumour that it could happen.

"Breeder listen to me, you'll kill us. You me, this whole entire planet and its population will burn and die."

The breeder only shook his head stubbornly and turned to face the end of the room. "The other has assured me that this will not happen. In fact I have sent him to fetch the child."

"Why's he working for you hmm, just tell me that? What have you got on him?"

"Got on him? Why Doctor, you make it sound as if I forced the creature into such an act." He laughed then, a low chuckle that started deep inside his stomach and roared outwards. He was ecstatic and could not empathise with the Doctor; it was beyond his own comprehension. To do so would mean that he understood the Doctor, which he did not.

"Fine then." Said the Doctor. "What's the Seraphim got on you?" The Doctor went for a different approach and it got the attention of the breeder before him. His laughter stopped abruptly and stuttered outwards before looking one way and then the other. The Onuphrius where clever, the Doctor did not doubt that. This one was very clever; it had been able to reproduce a living working TARDIS, of sorts. No the Seraphim needed him; the breeder was never in charge in the first place.  
_  
_And as Zachary rounded another corner with yet another grumble when he met with his worst nightmare.

**To be continued…**

**A/N: **Sorry for the slow update, I had to sort student loan stuff out. It turns out if you shout at the song when they put you on hold; it makes them pick up quicker. Oh and to press 0, it really _does _get you through to a real person.

This story is not going in the direction you might think it's heading in. Also the next chapter is a little lighter, more action and less doom and gloom chit chat.

As for when this fic is set: After PotD and before The Waters of Mars. The Doctor's events always happen out of time…anything could happen. **  
**

I've never asked before, but can I have review please. I'm interested to know what people think of my rather bizarre idea for a plot.


	7. Chapter 7

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket  
**Author:** Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)  
**Rating:** 14 +  
**Genre:** Drama/Action/Mystery?  
**Disclaimer:** The Doc belongs to the BBC. Only Zach, Collin and the plot belong to me so I apologise for this brain burp that happened.  
**Summary:** "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people." Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way?

Chapter 7:

There it was, stood before him. Floating was a more an accurate word to describe the Seraphim. A tall and skinny shinning beacon with its living dreadlock of hair. The silvery almost sea anemones floated as if suspended by water. A living pulsing circuit system of veins and arteries ran through its entire shinning translucent body.  
_  
"Above Him stood the Seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." _Zachary was not sure what Isaiah was smoking when he recorded his vision, but there were certainly no six wings. It simply stared at the boy with its almond eye's of jet black, the rest of its face devoid of any feature but the emotion was quite clear. Anger pulsed along its body, and Zachary could tell that there was almost an amount of disgust coming from it too. But the boy did not understand, nor did he know why the creature was so annoyed with him.

"You…You can't be here! The Doctor promised you wouldn't be here!" He found himself shouting at the seven foot being above him, his fists clenched by his sides as anger twisted his face. The skin on his arms began to prickle and the hairs on his body stood to fine attention as heat swirled around the both of them.

"You ruined my life! I was happy! My parents were happy and then you came along and took it all away!" Before he had been terrified of the being, but now anger was laced through his voice, his terrible temper showing through. "I never did anything wrong, why can't you just let me live and die in peace!" Something inside of Zachary's mind melted as the trembling of his hands became too much to bare. He ran forward, pulling his fist back ready to plunge it straight into the aliens shinny pulsing body.

The creature screeched and dodged to the side before the boy could even attempt to punch it. Whirling on him, the Seraphim struck its elongated hands out wards and seized the child by his skinny arms before heaving him upwards. It clutched him hard towards his chest and Zachary could do nothing but lash out with his feet, cursing the thing for having no apparent genitalia that he could strike. Underneath his fingers he could feel into silver flesh pulse, and see deep inside to its core. It very nearly sucked the boy inwards, and stars began to swim against his vision.

Suddenly, his chest felt too tight and the heat began to leave his body. It was then he realised that the Seraphim was squeezing the oxygen from his body, causing him to gasp and scrape at its flesh. Nails dug into it, drawing deep gashes of silvery blood, but still the thing would not relinquish him.

It squeezed until blackness pooled into the boy's vision, a light headiness washing over him until he could only weakly clutch at the thing before him. With a final little gasp he slumped forward into the adult Seraphim's arms where it held him firmly with one hand, unaware of the tiny little cargo he carried inside his back pack.

The Doctor could only look on helplessly at the screen as the alien squeezed the life from his young charge. But he could not be dead, for both the breeder and Seraphim needed him. They needed both of them and for something he could not quite grasp with his mind.

Why would they want a baby time lord, the very thought of it sent chills running up and down his spine. Two heart beats sped up as his mind overran with thoughts and sudden possibilities. He had been a father once. Also a grandfather, a great grandfather and more. But they were all gone now, each and every one of them and he was never going to get them back. The very last of his race, destined to be alone for as long as he lived. He was now on his tenth regeneration, eleven new faces in total and only two more to go. Then nothing, boom the end of the Time Lords would last with him and there would be no one more to watch the sky, to make sure everything happened the way it was supposed to.

Perhaps he felt himself to be more important than he was. People where always saying that he rushed in to save the place like he owned it, but he couldn't help the way he was or even how his mind worked.

But here was an option.

In the back of his mind was the niggling little voice that told him he would not be alone again. That he could have this tiny little Time child for his own. Finch had offered him the same kind of power, back on Earth with Sarah Jane and the chips that Rose thought had tasted so good.

_"The paradine gives us power, but you could give us wisdom! Become a god, at my side. Imagine what you could do; think of the civilizations you could save! Perganon. Acinta. Your own people, Doctor, standing tall. The Time Lords. Reborn!" _

That was just one niggling voice though. The Doctor never asked anything in return when he saved countless planets and species from dying. He simply plodded along in his own merry way. Goofy way, Zachary would put it.

Zachary…

Zachary would be forced from his human existence, to either blow up the planet and kill billions of people. Or he could latch on, breed with the closet nearest thing and kill himself slowly. Now he wondered what Zachary would do and a smile came to the Doctors face. Zachary would fight tooth and claw and The Doctor would be right beside him as they figured out the terrible mess they had let themselves get into. No, the terrible mess that the Doctor himself had pulled them both into. All he wanted to do was get the Kemonomimi home to their rightful place and time.

_Well Doctor_. He supposed. _It just wouldn't be your life without a little bit of melodrama here and there now would it._

When he was younger, when he was always trying to old and grumpy he thought that being The Doctor was all he had. That wasn't true, and now he understood. Being a friend was more important, his companions over the years had seen to that. Now he owned it to one more companion, his own little charge from a planet in the Osiruus system.

The doors up ahead of him opened and the Seraphim glided on in with Zachary slumped in one of his arms. With his head rolling to one side, and his dark wavy hair brushed across his face he looked almost fast asleep. But he looked almost blue, a result from being very nearly squeezed to death.

The breeder nearly jumped when the creature entered the room and it was then that the Doctor noticed its demeanour change. It almost shrunk inside, stooping its shoulder forward as if it to make its self seem somewhat smaller. However, the Seraphim took one glance at him and very nearly threw Zachary's unconscious body, bag and all over to the puce coloured creature.

With vigorous agility, the breeder caught a hold of the boy and very nearly scowled up at the Seraphim. Gently, he took the bag from his shoulders and disguarded it in the corners before settling him upon the ground below. He ran his fingers along the length of the boy's body, touching his cheek and chest, pawing at his arms and legs before giving a rather firm nod of his head. When he decided that the boy was in good health, and not dead from the elder Seraphim's man handlings, he straightened upwards. Flicking his hand forwards, living grey binds shot forth from his finger tips and entwined them around Zachary's tiny form. He lifted and moved the boy with ease and set him place next to the Doctor, who right then only had eyes for the Seraphim.

They stared at each other from across the room.

"So you're the one I'm protecting him from, hmm. What do you want with him? He can't possibly have upset you that much; he hasn't even been born yet on your own planet." The creature did not back down their spur of the moment staring match. "Oh he's a one our Zachary boy. Got such a temper, I swear it gives me headaches which I don't normally get unless I think too hard. Oh but maybe it's not Zach that you're angry with. Maybe…Zachariah?" The Doctor asked as casually as he could, ignoring the level of fear that was starting to build up inside him.

It was then that creature gave a great screech of sound. It came from nowhere and circled around the room, hitting each and every one of its inhabitants. The Breeder recoiled in fear and The Doctor hissed inwardly as the feel of heat and anger pressed deep into his skin. It caused Zachary to shudder and turn this way and that, as if he was wrapped up in bed suffering from the onset of nightmares.

"The first Seraphim to be born on the planet of Earth, sent to collect all its data and knowledge. But something went wrong, didn't it. He showed himself and the humans believed him to be a messenger of God, an Angel."

The creature before him was growing angrier as the seconds ticked by, infuriated with the Doctors Knowledge of whom and what it was.

"And good old Zachariah went along with it, didn't he. That was, until he accidently made a young unmarried virgin woman pregnant and was called back to his home world for punishment. Since then they left Earth be, until it was Zachariah's turn to be a parent." And with that his eyes scanned across at the unconscious form of Zachary who was unaware of what was going on around him.

"But I suppose you already knew whose son he was. But just answer me this, why him? What did either him or his parent do to you, as far as I can remember that little hiccup in history didn't do much for your planet except keep your distance from Earth and…ahhh." The Doctor frowned, the cog inside his head whirring around.

"Just who are you exactly?" He asked with an arch of eyebrow, completely forgetting where his manners where.

The Seraphim seem to physically seethe in front of him and it turned so abruptly that it made the Breeder jump once again from nervous fear.

"Just…I just need a little bit more time you see. I cannot possibly work with the infant in this state; you should not have tried to squeeze the life out of him!" Though the breeder was terrified of the Seraphim, a look of annoyance crossed his face that he was being forced to work in such a manner. With another word it stopped it's fussing with the boy and crossed over to other side of the room where the Doctor could no longer see him.

"My name." The creature before him spoke slowly, a mere whisper that the Doctor had to strain his ears for. They didn't have mouths; it was a form of telepathy that radiated from their very body. You could hear them just as easily from their feet as you could from their head. It also put a new spin on talking out of your arse, but the Doctor was not going to enlighten the creature to that fact.

"I have no name like you Doctor but my title is known far and wide. For I am the Fravashi and that world of apes was mine before this one's imbecile of a parent went and ruined it!" The Seraphim thrust his hand outwards at the boy and the Doctor could only frown.

"Fravashi? Fravashi? Where have I heard that before, I don't think it rings a bell." The Doctor was not being cruel on purpose, he really couldn't remember. It was hard having so many facts and figures inside his head and sometimes one or two things got misplaced. Either that or he had to push them out to make more room for new knowledge.

"Oh _the _Fravashi! The guardian spirit, oh I remember now!" The Doctor beamed happily at the creature in front of him before frowning again. "The soul keeper, the persuader of thoughts and decisions. You where the niggling feeling inside of people, one that persuaded them to do things that were not always deemed as good. Your job was to patronise humans and other creatures, not such a bad thing that they lost you really. Let me guess, when Zachariah was called back him you where as well."

"And I was blamed!" Fravashi roared and it was then that Zachary awoke, a startled scream filling his throat. The Doctor wished that he had his hands free as the sound of a Seraphim's scream, even in another form, could cause the brain to dribble from unprotected ears. Though the boy was too out of sorts to let his scream do that much damage. Instead he slumped backwards in the binds and scanned his eyes around the room. They landed on the breeder trying to look busy; they landed on his unmoving bag in the corner. Then his vision landed upon the Doctor who smiled weakly at him before he turned to face the adult Seraphim in front on him.

"D..Doc-Doctor what's going on?" He asked, determined to keep the tremor out his voice. "Why's the Seraphim here?" He asked with panic as he had come quite unprepared for dealing with the alien in front of him.

"Revenge." The Doctor said calmly, but he now saw no way out for either him or the boy. There was no way he could get to his screwdriver and the Breeder seemed far too terrified to stand up to the Seraphim. If there was no way of persuading them, then they were stuck with only two options.

"Revenge for what? I didn't do anything yet!"

"Not you." Said the Doctor. "Your parent, the one that's carrying you right now."

"Oh great! So my Mum or Dad has annoyed th-wait. Wait, did you say parent as it plural, one."

"Uhh, yeah. Did I forget to mention that your species reproduces asexually." There was an uncomfortable silence that followed after as Zachary stared in disbelief at the Doctor. With a tilt of his head he regarded the Seraphim before looking back at the Time Lord.

"You know…none of this being born as a higher being is sounding appealing. Not once have I stopped and thought: Ooo this might be fun. Let's live out a normal life, retire, die and then be born as something that doesn't even have sex!" He turned towards the Seraphim with a glare. "You might as well just kill me now and get it over and done with!"

"Well you can't breed on Earth either." The Doctor pointed out calmly.

"I don't want to breed on Earth! I don't want kids, I'm gay!"

Another silence followed and Zachary felt his anger being replaced with that of flustered embarrassment.

"Are you?" The Doctor asked.

"Yes!" Zachary cried and before the Doctor could tell him or asking him any more silly things he turned back to the Seraphim. "So I didn't do anything to you. You think by killing me, it's going to make everything better?" He asked with a small snarl to his voice. The Seraphim came closer, shinning so bright that it caused the boy to avert his eyes before scowling at the dark floor beneath his dangling bonded feet.

"I don't intend to kill you infant."

"Then what?"

"He's going to breed you." The Doctor added quietly.

"W-with what?" Zachary dared to ask and The Doctor arched a thick brown eyebrow. If he could, he supposed he would have pointed to himself but as it was, his hands where occupied with the binding that held them. They were starting to chafe, which was not an easy task for something living.

And the boy could only stare in disbelief at both him and the Seraphim in front of him. He took one deep breath, in and out, in and out before he started to pull the chords that bound them both. Grunting, he pulled has hard as he could, ignoring everything the Doctor was trying to say to him.

"…They'll only get tighter and then you'll never get out of them. Look stop it or you're going to hurt yourself!"

"I don't care! No one's breeding me with anything!" The boy grunted in desperation but in the end he only sagged back in the binds and let his head slump on them.

"Zachary, listen to me. I'll get us out of this, I promise, I-"

"Doctor, shut up." The boy sighed and turned to peer at the Time Lord, a sad look in his murky blue eyes. With a sigh he pressed his lips together, a crease forming in his brow as he attempted to think. "I'm going to say something now Doctor and I don't want you to get any idea's okie."

"Okie." Said the Doctor, wondering what on Earth it could be. Zachary took a deep breath and nodded his head to the best of his ability with the biding wrapped around his head.

The breeder didn't stop in his tinkering away from behind the monitor's and it distracted the attention of the Seraphim. It was then that the Doctor noticed that boy looked almost drained, his eye's a little less blue and his hair not as shiny as it once was. It was the one thing Zachary worried about most and he hated whenever he couldn't find the bathroom to wash it. The once healthy looking skin now looked almost parched and gray and the boy was very nearly falling asleep. Exhaustion plagued his very features and it took him several moments to lick around his slowly drying lips before he tried to speak.

"He's draining you, he's drawing the Seraphim out of you, Zach we don't have much time left-"

"I know. It's okie. Just listen to me. Just…You…You're a stupid tall gangly idiot who never stops talking. You have stupid pushy wobbly hair and you hit me with 2 by 4 which I'm never forgiving you for, but for all that Doctor, I love you, in the most platonic way I can." He took a deep breath and began again. "I didn't want to go with you, I didn't want to travel with you and I most certainly never expected to like you while I did it. But Doctor, you change people…now…now I don't know if that's a good thing or not." He gave a strained laugh, a smile creasing his eye's that where slowly turning black, pooling out from his pupil to engulf the iris and sclera. "But you do, and I love you for it."

And the Doctor found himself smiling, felt the chords and his hands budge enough so he could grasp Zachary's smaller and clammier hand in his own.

"Couldn't have put it better myself Zachy boy." He beamed and the boy nodded his head and eyed it with casual fear as his hair began to run white at the roots, shooting down wards along his waves.

"But Doctor."

"Yes.

"Doctor no matter how much I do love you, _that_ is never happening…." And he squeezed the Time lords fingers the best he could before turning to face the Seraphim. "Do you hear me? It's not happening! Collin!"

From the abandoned rucksack in the corner, the little toddler burst forth with the bottle of fizzy pear juice and began to shake it madly. Before the Breeder had time to react, the child flipped the cap and sprayed the liquid straight into his face. At once the creature froze before him, his puce colour turning to a strange shade of vivid blue before he rightly passed out on the floor with a loud thud.

The Seraphim hissed madly and turned his full attention onto the little child who could only peer up and upwards. Dropping the bottle it shattered in front of him, sending pieces of glass flittering across the floor.

"Collin!" The Doctor shouted But Collin only stared at him, his hands trembling before he looked back up at the Seraphim. Tears began to pool at his eyes as the creature swooped down at him, the screech it emitted sent shivers through the entire room. All of a sudden, the once puce coloured man sat bolt upright and flung his arm out towards the tiny trembling kitten. Scooping him up in one arm he propelled himself to his feet before grabbing a hold of the sonic screwdriver.

"Back demon, back I say. You shall not harm a hair on this child, or any child's head anymore!" He roared louder than the Seraphim's screech, tuning the screwdriver on so it whirred away causing both it and Zachary to suddenly scream out in pain.

"Breeder!" The Doctor cried, the vivid blue man turned abruptly towards the wall, and with some manovers with the toddler, flicked his wrist out towards the living binds. They slithered away quickly and back towards the tweed suited alien. The time lord jumped to the ground, where as Zachary slipped to the floor and stayed there with his head cradled in his hands.

"The name's Lecell good Doctor and I should say what it is an honour it is to finally meet you in a better frame of mind." He flung the screwdriver over towards the time Lord who caught it with his nimble fingers. Turning the screwdriver to a lower frequency he approached the Seraphim and aimed it at the creature. It cowered in the corner of the room near the make shift TARDIS but never once stopped with its telepathic hissing.

"Give it up Fravashi, its over. Your hold on the Onuphrius is over."

"You fool!" It hissed up at him, pushing back on the wall behind it. "You could have had a child, started the Time Lord race again!"

"But what you did is punishable by death on your planet, am I correct. You would have killed Zach, both of them and Zachariah would have to suffer the loss of both his children both on world and off."

"It…it doesn't make any sense Doctor, why…why make it a Time Lord child…why…why not any." Zachary's voice seemed harsh and sore and the Onuphrius rushed over to him with the toddler cat clinging to his neck. It took the back of the boy's neck and slowly raised a cup of water towards his mouth. The boy was wary at first, but the prospect of water made him drink deep from the cup.

"Because." The Doctor said solemnly. "It's illegal for them to interfere with…with almost endangered species. Your parent would have been punished, locked away and wouldn't be allowed to reproduce ever again. While old Fravashi here get's away Scott free with his revenge."

"But you're plan failed!" Cried Lecell with a hint of triumph in his voice and he grinned widely at the little child now trying to crawl into Zachary's weak arms. But Zachary did not respond to Collins pulling and sat there slumped against the wall, his eye's still black, his hair still turning white.

"Doctor, the infant!"

The Doctor turned to face the three at the wall, his eye's resting on the boy's weakening form and he turned back towards the Seraphim.

"Let him go! I said it was over!"

"NEVER! That world was mine and I will have my revenge-"

"Oh Fravashi, you where always the one for dramatics." A light flooded the room, causing all of its conscious inhabitants to shield their eyes. It seeped outwards, making the darkest of the corners brighten into almost luminosity and the Doctor had to stagger backwards with his arm thrust over to protect his face.

**To be continued…**

**A/N: **Nearly done! I hope this is making sense, and anything that has not been cleared up, will be cleared up in the next chapter (which may also be the last, I haven't quite decided yet.)

Like I said before, I'm not religious but all myths and legends (belief included) have to have started somewhere. Why not an alien species that mucked up?


	8. Chapter 8

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket  
**Author:** Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)  
**Rating:** 14 +  
**Genre:** Drama/Action/Mystery?  
**Disclaimer:** The Doc belongs to the BBC. Only Zach, Collin and the plot belong to me so I apologise for this brain burp that happened.  
**Summary:** "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people." Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way?

Chapter 8:

When Zachary was little, he would look up at the sky in wonder, his little blue eyes scanning the heavens for any sign of life. Sometimes he thought that if he closed his eyes, he could feel a light pulsing over him. But it would root him to the Earth and it was then he would feel it spinning around. It would tingle outwards from the depth of him, spread along his veins and artery's. It would pulse and he would pulse with it.

A short whispering of warm breath would ripple through his wavy hair, like a mother brushing her fingers over her swelling abdomen. It would call to the growing child inside, softly informing it that it was not alone and mummy was right there with it.

It was then that Zachary had first suspected that perhaps he had been adopted. With his dark wavy hair and murky blue eye's, it was a striking contrast against his parent's lighter sandy hair. His mother had mousey brown hair with green eyes and his father had been auburn with brown eyes. Biologically speaking, no human could have true black hair; it was technically a really intense dark brown. Both sets of his grandparents had been the same with their light colouring, but only his grandfather had been alive when he was born.

_When he was born_… Zachary wasn't born, that was yet to happen to him. One moment he had not been there and the next he was. It was a strange thing to come to realise that you had been created. Now he didn't feel neither human nor Seraphim. Drifting alone between the two until he died. He wondered what the point of opening his eyes would be. Couldn't he just die now, did he have to wait?

Everyone who is born dies and the afterlife has never been proven. Why deny him the pleasure, why could he just not die right there and then. It would save allot of pain. No planet would need to be destroyed; nobody would have to die and the Doctor…Oh the Doctor.

It was then that Zachary felt the warm flutter of a summer's breeze through his hair and skin. The feeling of being rooted came back to him and the world around him span ever faster. So fast he felt it whirl around, felt the light flood him and he gasped for air.

"…Mama?" He called softly, voice barely a whisper. Hands crept forward, fingers stretched outwards until they touched what he had been searching for.

Still covering his eyes, the Doctor reached into the pocket of coat and brought out his tortoise-shell rimmed square glasses. One quick flick of his screwdriver and he placed the now tinted lenses onto his face and peered at the Seraphim.

If a pregnant woman asks her husband, "Am I glowing?" there is only one answer: "Yes, dear." That was true to be said about the creature before him, but what a glow it was. In human pregnancy, blood volume increases by almost fifty percent. This increased blood volume causes the cheeks of women to take on a reddish blush. Pregnancy hormones also cause increased secretions from the oil glands, and this leaves the face nice and shiny. The end result...a beautiful glow.

But the Seraphim have no gender. They where neither male nor female. Nor where there any single mother of father, just one parent.

"But…But you can't be here." The Doctor spluttered and the creature took Zachary's barely conscious form into its arms and pulled him gently forwards. It cradled him, like an infant barely old enough to walk.

Zachariah was almost identical to Fravashi but a soft blue glow surrounded its centre. There, located safely inside it's stomach was a tiny curled up version of its parent. The tiny alien that Zachary was destined to become was barely any bigger than the Time Lord's hands.

"And you can be quiet Doctor!" The Seraphim warned him before he looked down at the boy in his pulsing arms. Though it was devoid of a mouth or anything apart from two jet black eye's, it seemed to smile. It radiated with glee and pride and swept a lock of still whitening hair from his eyes.

"Zachariah, this is a Paradox…He…he can't see himself like this!" The Doctor warned desperately and it looked for a moment as if the alien had rolled its eye's. It floated forwards and moved the boy into the Time Lords unsuspecting arms before tutting at him.

"Oh shh you. I ask you to do one very easy thing Doctor, now hold my son and don't drop him." This Seraphim spoke very differently to The Fravasi. It had a laid back edge to it's voice but the pushiness whined on through. A snappy anger, which it tried to soften away, and the Doctor could now see where Zachary got it. He was his parent's child even in human form.

Both Zachariah and Fravashi faced each other across the infant TARDIS. Power flared from the both of them but surely the pregnant Seraphim couldn't engage in battle?

"Doctor!" Lecell cried and the Time Lord spun around to face the vivid blue man. Collin was clutched in his arms, mewing at the top of his voice pathetically. The poor little thing kicked its legs outwards, tiny little red converse feet swaying in the air.

"The time machine is unstable. If they destroy it, it will take out this entire word. The children Doctor! Oh what have I done Doctor! The Ferst…the kemonomimi…" Lecell felt his knee's buckle underneath him and slipped to the hard ground with the toddler still clutched in his arms.

"My wife Doctor! My children, he took them. Oh he took them all and now…" His amber coloured eye's pooled with tears of green and the Doctor gritted his teeth and clutched Zachary closer to his chest.

"It wasn't your fault Lecell. None of this is your fault do you here me!"

"No." Said the with child Seraphim. "It's my fault. All of this was my fault."

"Ahh, so you take the blame _Zachariah_. Still carrying the name the apes gave you. What? Did Gabriel leave a nasty taste or perhaps you think your self to important to be their God."

"I was a child Fravashi! I made a mistake and you weren't there to help me!" The glowing creature winced and placed his hands upon his swollen abdomen and brought it away pooled with silvery blood. "Please Fravashi…not him…don't kill my baby."

The Doctor peered down at the human form in his arms, gritting his teeth at the sight of crimson blood that began to peer at the corner of his mouth. It dripped from his eyes like tears and collected in his now blinding white hair. The colour was startling, almost frightening but the Doctor collected himself. The muscles in his jaw clenched, his lips trembling in anger.

Not today. Not this boy, not this planet. This was not happening, he would not allow it to happen. When the Doctor made a promise, he dam well tried his hardest to keep it and by George he would die trying.

"You lost me my job! That world was mine, their stupid little souls where mine and you lost me it." Fravashi flung himself forward across the room and collided with the other being, sending them both hurtling to the ground. A loud screech could be heard from the pair of them as they engaged in battle in the space above their heads.

"No Fravashi, you lost it your self when you called my form out! "

Another pulse of light flooded them room and the Doctor ducked his head as not to be blinded, even through the glasses. Moving across the room as fast as he could, he pressed Zachary's weakening form into Lecell's trembling arms before grabbing onto Collin. The kitten latched onto the lapels of the Doctor jacket and peered up at him with wide blue eyes.

"Hang in their kitty!" He winked at the little creature who beamed up at him and gave one low rumbling purr. The Doctor thrust his Screwdriver out and fiddled with several of the dials.

"I'd been on the planet barely five years! I could be barely classed as an embryo and you challenged me! I panicked!" Zachariah cried as it buckled forward, attempting to claw at Fravashi as well as protecting its child.

"Doctor? I don't understand!" Lecell peered at the dying boy in his arms, for his life signs began to dim. His pulse was thready and the tweed-suited creature could only look at the Time Lord with fear embedded into its eye's.

"Zachariah did something that no other Seraphim has ever been able to do. Instead of making himself pregnant, he did the complete opposite. One little unmarried virgin and VOLIA she's with child. No one knows how he did it, a fluke in the system. Blow up the world and die, become pregnant and die…or transfer your soul. So, soul transfer as well as creating life. Fravashi was the keeper of the souls, so he's the one who's blamed." The Doctor looked upwards at the creatures. "You where blamed and punished Fravashi and you didn't like that one bit did you!"

"Hear me now Doctor, for I will have my revenge and that precious world you've been protecting. You have some disturbing love for those creatures, you and the angel are one of a kind!" Fravashi spat before swiping, his elongated hands stuck fast to Zachariah and the pregnant creature screamed. It filled the room and the Doctor felt himself wobble, his head spinning from the sudden rush of power.

"But you forget Fravashi! The bond between parent and child is the greatest thing you'll never know!" The time Lord turned, his coat billowing behind him as the tiny cat toddler clutched to his shoulders. He pointed the screwdriver straight at Zachary's pale and dying form.

"What are you doing Doctor, you'll kill him." Lecell cried but the Time Lord only grinned and turned his head upwards. "Let go Zachariah."

The creature was resistant, refused to let its child come to harm. "You have to trust me and let go!" The Doctor felt his own voice rise above the sound of the Seraphim's screeches and when the light dimmed, the Doctor knew what he had to do.

With one quick flick with his nimble fingers, he aimed the screwdriver straight at Zachary's heart. The device in his hands began to whirr and whistle and the boy in Lecell's arms very nearly curled in upon himself in pain.

"Zachy boy." The Doctor whispered quietly, his lips pressed close to the boy's ears. "Let go now Zachy, there's a good boy." Pushing a smile into his trembling voice he took the boy into his arms. The weight on his back slipped from his shoulders as he sank to the ground with Zachary pressed up close to his chest.

Taking the deepest of breaths, Zachary's eye's fluttered open and he gasped, clutching for something to hold onto. Grabbing a hold of the Doctor's hand he kept the screwdriver pointed at himself, the blood still dribbling from his eyes. Crimson tears streaked his face but in a moment of silence he turned towards the Doctor and smiled.

"You…You silly boy." Whispered the Doctor and Zachary could only smile weakly. "Who…Who you calling silly…man with no name." He pressed the button on the side of the screwdriver harder and both he and Fravashi wailed out in pain. A scream tore from his throat as an ear-piecing wail filled the air. Light flooded the room in a burst of pure heat and anger, causing the entire room to scream with them.

XXX

"Mama?" Zachary found himself suspended in air. The flow of current around him was warm, snaking through his clean and naked body. Gone was the gore and blood that he had accumulated on his person. There was nothing below him and nothing above him apart from warm stretch of sunshine. It felt as if he had been bound in his bed covers and his warmth radiated the whole bed.

"Shh." He felt fingers upon his lips once again before letting his eye's rest upon the being In front of him. It was neither male nor female, nor any other genders that he had come across in his travels with the Doctor.

But it was beautiful. A tall shinning beacon that no longer terrified him. It's eyes shone with happiness and he did not need to see a mouth smile to know that.

There in its abdomen was the tiny bundle of a child. The spitting image of it's parent but only big enough to sit in the palm of his hand. Pushing forward, he rested his hands upon the stomach and stared deep inside to it.

"I'm going to go now." He whispered. "I'm going to go live and learn for you." The infant inside its parent twitched as if in recognition and he smiled brightly up at the elder Seraphim. Bringing its hands up, it ran its fingers softly through the boy's hair.

"That was a very silly thing to do Zachary." It said softly and the boy nodded with his lips pressed into a thin line.

"We all do stupid things." Came his reply and the Seraphim nodded its head this way and that as if contemplating.

"That we do. But never for a second believe that the Doctor would hate your decision. A very selfless thought from you Zachary Birch."

"But…but it wasn't though. I would have died and you'd get into trouble and-" He was silenced gently by shimmering fingers upon his lips.

"Exactly. You would have died and gained nothing in return. But the Doctor is…The Time Lords where a peculiar race to figure out and we never received much data on them…but now, now we can." It reared back and studied the wavy haired boy before giving a nod of his head.

"Go on with your travels infant. A companion of the Doctor is surely just as noble as carrying a time child."

"But! But I don't want to go! I just found you, I can't loose you again." Zachary spluttered desperately, his hands clutched to the Seraphim's wiry body. It gave a short burst of amused laughter, nothing cruel but a smile was apparent in its voice.

"Oh Zachary you silly thing. I've never been lost for you to find me. I've always been right there for you from day one. Now go on, he's waiting."

The boy tried desperately to stay in the warmth. Suddenly surrounded by what he had been searching for nearly all his life was too much to bare. A part of him felt lost, it would always feel lost until he was born into the rightful body. And slowly he was pushed away from that feeling of belonging and the warmth flooded from his body.

"No mama! Don't!"

"…-Achary….Zachary can you hear me?" It was the Doctor, his voice was muffled somewhere in the distance.

The boy mumbled something with his eye's still firmly closed. A frown creased at his brow and he groaned in frustration. Pain laced its way across his head and his eye's pulsed in their sockets. Migraines where a terrible thing to go to sleep with but it was worse still to wake up with one.

"Come on wake up, there's a good boy." He felt light tapping at his cheek and then he grunted and threw his own arm up, knocking away the Doctor's concerned fingers.

"Get offa me…"

"…Zach?" There was hurt in the Doctor's voice and the boy could not help but let a smile come to his face.

"Either… let go or-" But the words never came as he slipped from the Doctors arms and landed on all fours on the hard ground. Heaving, he threw up what little he already had in his stomach. A dribble of spit collected on his chin, and he wiped the sour liquid away with the back of his arm. There where soothing hands rubbing at his back before they held his hair back for him. Heaving once more, nothing but a string of bile came up before the boy gave a shudder.

With a shaky sigh and watery eyes, he sat back on his legs and peered around the room for the first time.

They where gone. Both Fravashi and Zachariah where nowhere to be seen and he blinked ever so slightly in confusion. But the Doctor was right there, concern written across his goofy face and he gave a shake of his head.

"I'm fine Doc…Just a…Just a bit of travel sickness I think." He murmured with a little shake of his head.

"What…What happened?" He dared to ask and the Doctor gave one almighty sigh and sank down to the ground.

"While the Fravashi was trying to call out your form, you where pulling him in. Neither one of you would have won in the end and may I say that was one of the dumbest things you've ever done!" The Doctor scolded the boy in front of him who ducked his head in almost shame, bringing his arms up to wrap around his chest.

"But a very brave thing too."

Zachary looked upwards and saw the Doctor smile at him. Reaching a hand out he grasped at the boys shoulder and gently squeezed.

"What happened? Where did they go?" He asked, and he could feel the sudden loss of being on his own once again. It was a peculiar feeling, like having an old friend to stay but once they leave, the place can become awfully quiet.

"Vanished." Said he Doctor as he peered at the ceiling. "Well..the Fravashi dispersed and you and your parent…Well you sort of hung there, suspended in the air. I stayed behind to keep watch."

It was then he noticed that neither Collin nor the breeder where in the room.

"They've gone ahead to fetch the kemonomimi and the Ferst." The Doctor pulled himself to his feet and held a hand out for Zachary who regarded it for several moments.

"The Who?" He asked as he grasped the hand. To his feet he was pulled but the wooziness in his stomach didn't settle and he found himself slipping into the Doctor's outstretched arms.

"Ooo I'll tell you all about it when we get out of here." The Doctor assured him.

"Can you smell bananas?" He asked as he clutched the Time Lords coat and the man grinned at him, plunged a hand into his pocket and pulled out a familiar yellow fruit.

"A good source of potassium, get that down your neck and you'll be as good as new…well." He held the boy out at arms length and let his eye's linger on his hair a little longer than he should have done.

"Doctor what are you looking it?" Zachary dared to ask with the fruit clutched in his hands but the man only shook his head. "All in good time Zachy boy but we really must start making a move."

"How come?"

"When the Fravashi dispersed, he took the junior TARDIS core with him. It's what's being keeping this building in fun house mode. Now it's not here, we need to get and fast."

"Or?"

The Doctor turned with his coat fluttering behind him, the bag from the corner grasped in his hand. "Or we get squished. Now stop talking, eat that and get a move on."

With that, he brought the grappling hook and tooth floss from the bag and grinned at his paling companion.

"…I hate you." He sighed.

**To Be Continued…**

**A/N:** I lied…One more chapter to go.

And everything WILL be summed up the next chapter I promise.


	9. Chapter 9

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket  
**Author:** Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)  
**Rating:** 14 +  
**Genre:** Drama/Action/Mystery?  
**Disclaimer:** The Doc belongs to the BBC. Only Zach, Collin and the plot belong to me so I apologise for this brain burp that happened.  
**Summary:** "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people." Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way?

Chapter 9:

"Feeble things, that live in the light cling to your sons that die."

As fast as he could, and without quite knowing why, Zachary ate the banana. The Doctor seemed to have a fascination for the fruit and the only conclusions that the boy could come up with where homoerotic and certainly not suitable for any occasion. Still, they where a very good source of potassium and Zacahry had not eaten a thing since the day before. At least, he presumed it had been the day before.

Travelling with the Doctor certainly meant his body clock was spinning anti clock wise and upside down to boot. He wondered just how the man did it, but then he came to the conclusion that he was probably just as lost in time as he was.

Right then though, all Zachary could think about was not thinking. For thinking meant that his mind would spin into overdrive and his legs would not be able to move for terror. They both stared down at the elevator shaft that they had travelled up, albeit one of the unconscious, before being held captive. It had managed to get Lecell and Collin down to the basement where the other Kemonomimi children were being held prisoner. Now it was not working. In vain they had tried to send the lift up, fingers constantly on the button. In the end they had to resort to prying the lift doors open. What was more concerning was that Zachary was very certain the long narrow box was shifting. No! He was positive that the concrete walls were beginning to warp and shift in the small claustrophobic space. As if reality had began to shift around them.

"D-Doctor?" He called, clutching to the doors of the elevator, peering down with his eyes wide in fear.

"And there you are! AHA!" The Doctor cried, before a small clang of metal followed pursuit. Peering around at the Doctor, the boy frowned. The Time Lord was clutching at one of the side panels on the infant TARDIS, straining with everything he could. Teeth ground in frustration.

"What are you doing? This whole place is going to…to…implode or whatever it was you said!" Zachary called again and brought one his hands up to rub at his face. It was still streaked with blood and dirt and too be quite honest, he had looked better. When he pushed his hair from his eye's he glanced at the stray strands, some of them still streaked white. "Does everyone you travel with turn a premature shade of white?" He questioned under his rapid breath, but still the Doctor did not answer him.

"It's stuck!" The Doctor shouted from the depth of the room, the light flickering on and off as the power began to drain from the house.

"Huh?" The boy frowned in confusion and it was then that he noticed what the doctor was doing. Trying in vain to unscrew something from the make shift time machine. With a roll of his eyes and click of his tongue, Zachary decided to give him a small boost.

"Righty tighty, lefty Lucy." He called.

"Pardon." The Doctor stopped with his tinkering to turn and arch a thick brown eyebrow at the boy before him. Zachary only peered at him with a frown, willing the cogs to spin in the great brain of his.

"Oh…OH! Lefty Lucy!" And with that he laughed and began to screw the little piece of metal the opposite way to which he had previously been doing. A long blue pulsing piece of glass slid into the Doctor's carefully ready hands when the bolt slipped away.

"By Joe I think the man's got it!" Zachary cried triumphantly with sarcasm laced through his very words. That was until he noticed the strange devise in the Doctor's hands.

"This Zachy boy…this is very important, now hold your hand out." Zachary did so without question, but he did arch his eyebrows in confusion when the Time Lord slipped the thing into his waiting palms.

"Then why are you giving it to me?" It felt warm in his hands, almost as if life itself had flooded into the little piece of unknown technology.

"Because." Started the Doctor, as he began wrapping tooth floss around the grappling hook until it became matted and rope like. "I trust you." With that, he threw the hook upwards into the open elevator shaft. It rested and hooked onto something with a loud metal thud and the Doctor gave the thread a good hard tug.

"You…You trust me?" Zachary asked, a smile coming to his face before he slipped the piece of glass gingerly into his jacket and fastened it up tight. There would be no use in the Doctor handing him the thing only for him to go and lose it, or break it.

"Of course, and you trust me too don't you?" The Doctor grinned at the boy over his shoulder as he began to knot the dental floss together to make a rudimentary make shift rope like the previous one.

"…Always." He grinned and the Doctor threw his arm backwards and wiggled his fingers. That never ending grin only seemed to get bigger, his teeth almost gleaming in the overhead flickering lights of the once Breeders space.

Zachary felt his feet stagger backwards, but his mind raced forwards. He faltered ever so slightly, his eye's dating upwards with fear towards the tooth floss rope that surely wouldn't hold both their weight. Never mind the pair of them, it wouldn't even hold his trainer if he tied it to the end. But when the Doctor looked at him, the smile was still there. It was not as big as it was before, a more genuine smile. The kind that would appear in drastic situations.

"If we die, I'm going to kick your time lord ghost but, you got that?" The boy warned as he took a steady step forward and held his hand out towards the Doctor. The man grabbed a hold, his fingers lacing around the smaller one and he pulled him into his arms.

"Hold on!" The Doctor very nearly laughed before swinging them both forwards into the elevator shaft. With a loud squeak, Zachary buried his face into the Doctors jacket lapels and wrapped his legs securely around the man's waste. With his arms latched around his neck he held on for dear life and refused to open his very firmly shut eyes.

"We're going to die. We're going die." He muttered under his breath, terror laced through his very words. They were hanging over a 30 foot drop with nothing but dentistry equipment to hold onto.

"Look on the bright side. If you die…"

"Doctor!"

"All right, all right. Hold on to your hair piece." The Doctor wrapped his arms tightly around the small noose like appendage he had made in the fake rope. With his legs wrapped around it and Zachary in turn wrapped around him they began their decent.

Slowly at first, the inched downwards into the belly of the warping elevator shaft. It rippled inwards towards them, walls distorting and the roof seemingly a little closer than it had been previously. Without warning though, the grappling hook that was keeping them secure buckled under the extreme pressure of the wall caving inwards.

A "ping" rang out around their concrete and metal encasement and the Doctor gulped before looking skywards.

"Did…did you just gulp? Of God you just gulped." Groaning, the boy could feel his heart beating ten to the dozen before the sound came again. Suddenly the noose in the Doctors hands became slack and he lost his firm grip. The make shift rope began to slip from the Doctors hand, and Zachary slipped from the Doctor.

"AHH!" Losing his firm hold on the Time Lord, the boy's legs became untangled from him. Slipping, he tried in vain to keep a hold of the man who in turn was trying to hold onto both the Boy's jacket and the rope in toe.

The grappling hook gave one last ping and the rope pulled tight. The Doctor had to take a chance, it was now or never. So he began to gently swing Zachary by the scruff of his neck.

"What…what are you doing?!" The boy flayed his arms upwards, his t-shirt cutting around his neck to make him gasp and splutter.

"If you hadn't noticed, you've slipped. Now I need both hands free or we're going to fall. I've grown pretty fond of this face Zachary and I don't fancy having to get used to another one when we've been squished together! I've also groan quite fond of you and I'm not too good at picking out baby toys!"

"Funny, I was thinking the same thing." Zachary glared before clenching his teeth together and took the deepest breath he could muster under the circumstances. With one last heave the Doctor was able to swing his smaller companion upwards, grabbing onto his t-shirt to pull him into his chest. Without being told, Zachary clutched his arms under the Doctors and clamped on with his legs. It was a very uncompromising position they had been forced into, but there was no time to think about being uncomfortable.

Delving into his coat pocket, the Doctor pulled out the old fishing reel and fixed onto the rope in his hands.

"Reach into my pocket and get the screwdriver."

With eye's still firmly shut, the boy felt around the Time Lords chest and timidly reached into his pocket. His fingers wandered over many a thing, soft as silk to almost reptilian. With a wince he deepened his search until his knuckles brushed past the cold metal of the screwdriver. With a triumphant sigh he pulled the device from the depths of the coat and clutched it between his fingers.

"Now what?"

"Well open your eyes first or we're not going to get anywhere." The Doctor waited for Zachary to open one eye's to glare upwards at him. "Now then, the second dial down, don't twist it. Whatever you do, don't twist that dial. You want to go for the second one up."

"But which ones up?" Zachary licked out between his lips and took a deep breath before nodding his head. "Okie..I..I think I've got it. Now what?"

"Now point it at the pulley system and whatever you do, don't let go.

"Of what, you or the screwdriver!"

"**Now Zach!**" The Doctor fairly shouted and Zachary gave a sudden squeal before pressing the dial on the screwdriver. In whirred to life in his hands, a buzz shooting up his fingers and arms and pressed straight towards the pulley system. A sudden jolt in their stomachs let them know they were on the move and before they knew it, the air around them started to whip at their faces as they gathered up speed.

The ground came ever closer, and Zachary was on the verge of terror rising straight from his throat. The walls began to thrust forwards towards them, a brick narrowly missed the side of the Doctors head and Zachary had to pull his legs up even higher so beams wouldn't amputate him along the way.

Hitting the top of the elevator sent tremors up the Doctor's legs, and he let go of the make shirt dental floss rope to peer down at Zachary. The boy was still straddling his hips and it took a quick clearing on his throat to alert him that they had reached the ground safely.

"Oh!..sorry." He muttered, climbing down the Time Lord very much like a terrified cat.

Crouching down, the Doctor took back his screw driver and clicked it at the escape hatch on top of the elevator before shifting it quickly to the side. Letting Zachary jump down first, he watched as the short boy struggled to reach the ground. With a wiggle of his hips and a wing of his arms he landed in heap on the ground and glared up at the Doctor. The Time Lord could only roll his eye's before following after. He never had been good at landings.

"Come on, we need to get out of here." Heaving Zachary up off the floor, he pulled him through the elevator doors and very nearly dragged him along the corridor.

"Explain!"

"Explain what?"

"The dental floss, it doesn't make any sense. It can't be that strong, can it?" Though sometimes Zachary dared to ask what and what could not be true. If space and time travel was achievable then who knows what was achievable with floss.

"Well it certainly isn't from the 21st century Zach, I thought you would have conned onto that."

"Well it's not exactly what I was thinking when that hologram told me to find 19 boxes of the stuff, spearmint not cinnamon flavour. "

"Is this all you're going to do now, ask me silly questions about dental floss?"

"That and why pear juice?"

"Nasty stuff. I can still taste it on the back of my tongue. Now if that's all now move those little legs."

The Doctor felt his arms go taught and his fingers slipped from the boy's hand. They stopped in their frantic spitting and Time Lord peered over his shoulder at the boy.

"Don't." He said very quietly before starting to move again, slipping past the Doctor without a glance to spear. "Call me little!" And with that, he looked over shoulder and grinned at the chocolate eyed man before starting to run himself.

The pair of them laughed and didn't look back as the walls around them began to warp and crumble before their very eyes. Without the infant TARDIS, or indeed the Time Lord science, to make the house seem bigger than it was, the door was straight up ahead instead of hidden like before. They dodged ceiling rubble and light bulbs, doors sprang open to reveal nothing but more brick walls and floor began to buckle under their feet. A piece of carpet tile flung up into the air and hit Zachary firmly in the side of the face. It flew past his cheek with such speed that the hard nylon gave him a carpet burn.

"DAMMIT! I wasn't even on the ground! That isn't fair!" He cried his indignities to the heavens but the only reply he gained was the Doctors laughter. In turn it made his eye's scrunch up with laughter before they both jumped towards the doors. Springing outwards with a sudden burst of energy, it propelled them both into the air and sent them soaring out into the open.

It was Zachary who hit the wall, falling into a undignified heap on the ground. The Doctor, on the other hand, regained his composure fairly quickly before squinting his eyes at the alley wall in front of them. The Door's that had spat them out began to suck themselves back in. Folding inwards like scrunched up metal, he watched as the whole place shrank back into itself before it appeared as if it had never been there.

"Why is that I always end up on my back? No…wait, don't answer that one. Ouch." Attempting to move was deemed painful and every bone in the boy's body decided to scream at him simultaneously. After all of this was over, he was going for a good long soak and he was not coming out again. Blinking, he peered at the wall and that was when panic began to flood senses.

"Doctor! What about the cats!" Surely they would not have run for their own lives and left the children inside the building. The Doctor wouldn't do that, no one would do that unless they where heartless. Ahh, but had he not wanted to run from the Fravashi in the first place? To hide himself in the crowds of the Saturday market that milled around Leeds looking like little lost sheep.

"Oh…I shouldn't worry too much about them…" The Doctor turned to smile down at Zachary as a little bundle of energy came shooting up the alley way. It collided with the boy's chest and buried it's self firmly in his lap with the loudest purr he had ever heard.

"**Collin**!" The boy very nearly laughed. Sitting on the ground still, he held the little cat out at arms length as he giggled and reeled his head back with a grin only a child could support. The smile reached the corner of his wide blue eyes and he squealed with delight when fingers where tickled under his little arm pits.

"Oh I am never letting you out of my sight again." He sighed as he brought the little boy into hug, wrapping his arms firmly around his tiny little form. "Neither of you." He glared up at the Doctor before a smile worked its way into the corner of his mouth and the Time Lord smiled down at him with his own nod his head.

"Now then. We need to get to the TARDIS as quick as we can, but I'm not quite sure which direction we parked."

"What happen when we do find the Tardis?"

"Well I suppose we need to get the cat's home, and the Ferst…and Lecell." The Doctor let out a blow of breath from the side of the mouth, his eyes wide in that almost comical way he carried. It amused Zachary to no end and made him giggle into the top of Collins head of thick black hair. Very unlike Zachary, as he was not a giggling sort of boy but the urge had become too much. He had to laugh.

They had just survived a very uncompromising position, one that the young Seraphim was still running through his head. The old woman had been correct; he did not quite understand the Doctor's decision. Of course he was relieved that it was not happening, but when he sat quietly with only the sound of Collins purrs and the Doctors rambling did everything settle down inside his mind.

He could have had someone. The Time Lord race started once again but the alien traveller had flat out refused without, it seemed, a second thought. But that was not for now, that was for later when they had put everything back as it should be.

Locating the TARDIS had been easier than they first presumed. The blue tube of glass in Zachary's jacket had started to glow and pulse the closer they came to the time machine.

"You told me TARDIS's where grown, on your home planet when…when it was still there." He finished quietly as they hurried down the alley ways, to which the Doctor nodded his head sharply.

"Then how did Fravashi make the little one. I mean, sure, if he already had a time machine then he could go back in time and pluck one out of…You know, never mind. I still can't fathom built in answering machines, no need to delve into making baby TARDIS's." He sighed with a small frown, his head hurting once again from too much thinking in a short amount of time.

"You bring up a good point though." The Doctor shrugged.

"I do?" Zachary asked with a little grin, he always did like praise but something at the back of his mind began to plague him once again.  
"But…but it's my fault." He said quietly, his eye's down on the dirty ground below as not to look into the Doctors eye's. It would be nice to look into them and not see accusation. It would also be nice to lied to, for the Time Lord to say it had nothing to do with him. If it had nothing to do with him then he would not have been there in the first place. If he was innocent of the Kemonomimi's being plucked from their rightful place in time then they would not have been taken in the first place.

"Zachary." The Doctor stopped and turned towards the boy who was no far to concerned in making sure Collin's dungarees where not going to slip and fall down his skinny ankles. "Zachary, look at me." The boy did so gingerly and his murky blue eye's met with the Doctors own pools of chocolate brown.

"You're thinking too hard. _Too much logic turns a Seraphim into a Vulcan_." He recited sagely but Zachary could only pull a face in confusion.

"What's a Vulcan?"

"Oh never mind." He shook his head and smiled at the same time. "The point is Zachy boy, is that yes you may have been a part of why the children are here being sold as pets. But-" The boy opened his mouth to argue and the Doctor pressed his finger to his lips.

"But, bad things happen every day and if you think too much about it then you become a part of the problem without really solving it, you see?"

Zacahry could not see though. There seemed to be an almost proverbial cloud inside his mind that refused to let him see the truth in the Doctors words.

"If I wasn't here though…If I…If I never existed then-"

"Then the universe would be one short of a bold person who refuses to let bad things happen to the smaller people. This place, all of it Zach needs people like you because you're the one that goes out and makes it happen. You study and learn everything you can get your hands on and woe betide anyone if they tried to tell you otherwise. So you didn't take this straight away, it took some convincing but if this wasn't supposed to happen then it wouldn't have and you wouldn't have met me." The Doctor straightened up with a smug little smile on his face and Zachary could not help but glare playfully at the man before cocking his head to one side.

"Oh because you're so brilliant?" He asked with a coy smile, but the Time Lords words where not lost to him and it made him smile even brighter than before.

"I see you've noticed."

"Ah yes Doctor, what would the universe be like without you hmm?"

"Hmm…I wonder."

Zachary did not need to wonder though and his smirking smile softened around the edges as he peered up at the Doctor. "Lost Doctor, the universe would be very lost in deed." There was a comfortable silence between them for a few moments before Zachary nodded his head and lifted a squirming Collin up onto his shoulders.

"Now come on, let's get these kitties home."

And The Doctor could not have put it better himself.

**To Be Continued…**

**A/N: **I know I said this would be the last chapter but I think 10 would be a nice round number to finish it all off with. Besides, I have a tendency to ramble on and I couldn't fit everything I needed to write in the chapter without it being longer than the others. (Compulsive freak I am.)

Next Chapter, utterly the last one I promise!

"**What's A Vulcan?" **: I like the cross reference things. Am I perhaps the only one who thinks that Doctor Who, The Hitchhikers Guide, Red Dwarf and Star Trek all fit nicely together? Probably….


	10. Chapter 10

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket

**Author:** Blue Stem Cell

**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)

**Rating: **14 +

**Genre:** Drama/Action/Mystery?

**Disclaimer:** The Doc belongs to the BBC. Only Zach, Collin and the plot belong to me so I apologise for this brain burp that happened.

**Summary:** "We've landed on a planet covered in back alleys, complete with used condoms and old mattress by the smell of it. Oh and I've just discovered cat people." Zachary hated the Doctor sometimes. But just who is Zachary Birch any way?

Chapter 10:

Ten minutes later found them in one of the market squares, now deserted as darkness swam over the dismal planet. The little cat children stood clutching each other as the peered with wide terrified eye's at the Ferst. The dark clad robots and their blonde leader stood in eerie silence and Zachary was not to fond of playing barrier with them and the children.

"So who are they again?" He asked Lecell, who was trying to play peacekeeper to the best of his ability. The Doctor had gone to fetch the TARDIS, which was located down an adjacent alleyway. However, none of them believed it would be a good idea to trail the poor bare footed creatures down the dirt strewn snicket so their mode of transportation was coming to them.

"Well, as far I know they are an off shot from the Sol system, where humans originally come from. But they are lost, in the wrong time and solar system just as the children." The kemonomimi's where terrified of the lifeless creatures but the Ferst simply stood there. With hollow doll like eye's and plastic weaved hair, Zachary could not see what there would be to be frightened off. Then again, he had not grown up with the creatures terrorising him to having countless children to be sold on as pets.

"A colony of humans, very advanced in deed. Though a disease spread through their planet. A depression which could be transmitted by person to person. It would have killed them all unless they made a drastic decision."

"The…They're human?" Zachary asked and Lecell nodded his vivid blue head. "By implanting themselves with a transmitter, they could defuse the affect of the depression. When they are happy, they appear lifelike with personalities like yours or the Doctors. When they are sad though…" Lecell shook his head and gestured with his hand at the still creatures.

"You're going home though. The Doctor promised he'd take you home and he never goes back on them." Zachary sighed and placed Collin on the ground before taking a strong stride over to the robot creatures.

"Why aren't you happy?" He questioned with an arch of an eyebrow. It perplexed him to no end but that seemed to be happening to him more often than not of late. Trying to search Eve's face gave nothing away, only that she began to turn more android like. Her skin became akin to the plastic of dolls and her eye's where now glossed over and glass like.

It was then that she looked down at him, causing him to jump a little at her sudden movement. "We have done a terrible thing Seraphim and for that we will be punished." Was her only statement, voice flat and sombre.

"But you didn't do anything, The Fravashi brought you here and-"

"I'm afraid child, that we are all guilty of what has happened here over the last fourteen or so years." Lecell brushed fingers across his shoulders and brought him away from the Ferst with a gentle pull.

"We do not need to wait for your Time Lord, for we shall be pulled up through time and space itself until we are back in our rightful place." And before Zachary's eye's, one of the black clad Fesrt was literally sucked upwards into nothingness, leaving every one silent and terrified.

"They're going to punish you? That isn't fair!" A second Ferst was taken and he looked up into Eve's cold hard face before it began to soften around the edges and she smiled at him. She had to stoop to reach his ear and he felt no ounce of breath upon his skin, only the whirs and clicks of her voice from within.

"He will think about it, but be prepared to be lost one day young Seraph. Because the Time Lord will not come back for you." Where Eve's last departing words before she too was plucked from her place in time to be put back where she came from.

Zachary felt his heart jump up into his throat at those words, but he did well to swallow it back down into his chest. A sudden realisation dawned him that what the old woman had said to him would slowly but surely become real. The Doctor was not going to lose him, however, he was simply going to leave him and not return.

They where gone and Collin tugged at the legs of his jeans. For a moment, he had forgotten about his little kitten friend but smiled down at him never the less. Collin threw his arms upwards and scrunched his fingers up to indicate he wanted to be picked up. The boy did so and held the little thing close to his chest, resting his cheek upon his fluffy head of hair.

"You are worried, yes?" Lecell asked but Zachary could only smile and shrug his shoulders.

"No one said this time travel stuff was going to be easy. It isn't always going to fun and laughter and sometimes it down right terrifying. But…" The smile reached his eyes and it was then that Lecell beamed at him in turn.

"Not giving it up for the world, hmm? No I suppose I would not either."

The sound of the universe drummed out around their ears and the little children gathered around Zachary, almost appointing him their leader. There was a girl, who could not have been that much younger than he was holding her swollen pregnant belly whilst grinding her teeth as the Time Machine materialised before them. The doors opened and the Doctor poked his head out of them, almost frowning at the sudden lost of twenty Ferst.

"They went home." Zachary told him with a shrug of his shoulder.

"Well that can't be right. Homes…well its and five thousand hundred years in Ooo, that direction." He pointed to a random section in the sky before stepping out of the TARDIS. The cats all mingled towards him and before the purr loudly, the littlest ones clutching at his legs with huge toothy grins.

"Aww." Zachary snickered. "They like you." He beamed, his words dripping with sarcasm that was not lost on the Doctor who only frowned at him before turning his attention to the children. He smiled down at them and then proceeded to count each and every one but Zachary beat him to it.

"Thirty four at my last count, twelve of them pregnant. Not including me, you, Collin or Lecell."

"Make that one less, Doctor." Lecell raised his hand and cleared his throat and the boy turned to peer down at him. "Why don't you come with us? Not as if there's anything left here for you, is there?" He asked but the vivid blue man smiled and raised his fingers towards Collin, stroking under his chin like a normal little house cat.

"Oh but there is Zachary Birch. I have done terrible things here and I need to correct them. First things first, I must collect up all of the kemonomimi's that have been bought and sold here.

"Fourteen years though! That…That's allot of cats." Zachary warned him and Lecell nodded once again. "But you would do the same thing, would you not?" He questioned with an arch of what could only be presumed as an eyebrow. Amber eyes shone in the darkness, which in itself was a strange ability to able to accomplish.

."I must stay here young Seraph, correct my mistakes. There are fourteen years I can only account for with wild memories of such terrible deeds. I must find the children that I made and sold and bring them back." And before the Zachary could argue with him he seized the boy's hand with both of his and shook it firmly. "I shake you by the hand by George I do!" He cried with laughter, his little round belly shaking from sudden joy.

"And I must start with the five I sent out this morning, including your little friend. How fond he has become of you Seraph." He smiled before turning to the Doctor.

"Doctor…It has been both a pleasure and curse in meeting you."

"A curse?" The Doctor questioned before his hands too where firmly shaken. "Of course Doctor. A curse that we both brought upon myself. And you of course, yes. Yes keep watch Doctor, keep close to those you know for the thirteen faces are upon you."

"That…that's what the old woman told me." Zachary whispered.

"What old woman?" The Doctor arched his eyebrow but Lecell was not finished. "And Doctor! He'll return. Be careful." He nodded his head before giving one last floating wave. A cold rush of wind rushed around him and the Breeder vanished in the flutter of a cold chill.

"What on Earth was that all about?" Zachary very nearly laughed as he watched the air flutter upwards, the younger children giggling madly as it swirled around them before promptly vanishing down on of the alleys.

"Who knows?" The Doctor shrugged. "They are quite mad after all." He grinned down at Zachary who only shrugged in response before nodding his head.

"Right then! All aboard who's coming aboard!"

"But Doctor! How's he going to get the other's home?"

"All in good time Zachy boy, now get in here. You're on cat duty and I will not be impressed if the walls of the TARDIS become cat scratching posts, you got that?" He asked with a wave of his screwdriver, pointing it directly at the boy who only grinned and mock saluted the man.

The planet it self was beautiful. Just as Earth was before the technological advances of man and the industrial revolution during the Victorian era. However, they where not a backwards people and had their own technology. Zachary just believed it was a better-kept planet than the one he had been used too.

With Collin clinging to his back, Zachary helped the Doctor steer the Time Machine in the right direction as not to land the whole contraption into the coast they where now skimming across.

The children, despite looking a little worse for ware, loved the ride home. They giggled and cheered in he only way that young could. Zachary has sat them up along the platform that ran around the core of the TARDIS. That way, he could keep an eye on them so they wouldn't wander into the depth of the rest of the living ship.

"And…TOUCHDOWN!" The pair of them called together with a smirk over the TARDIS console. It had become a habit of theirs and the Doctor realized that he had missed having another male on board. A male that was not too fond of him, only their to keep an eye on his girls friend. A male who was more fact that TARDIS would like or a male that he had to expel for using future technology for his own personal gain. Oh Zachary had his flaws, but all in all…he'd do.

Laughing, they both failed to hear the small cry of pain from one of the platforms up above. It was only when the heavily pregnant cat gave a loud feral shriek of pain did the time traveling duo take note.

"Oh dear…" Zachary gulped and looked up at the mewling girl before glancing at the Doctor.

"Zachary?" He asked and gestured towards the girl but the boy only scowled and had to stop himself from stomping his foot.

"No way, you're the Doctor, Doc. I'm the holding hands person." He wiggled Collin from his back and sent him to sit with the other little children closer to his age. The older ones had began to crowd the girl and it took the pair several moment to get through their defensive cat people barrier.

"We need to get her to one of the elders. Luckily they know we're coming." The Doctor said as he began to try and scoop the girl up into his arms. She turned and clung to his jacket, claws digging into the thin material of his pin stripe suit. "The machine in Lecell's house wasn't a TARDIS after all." He said with a small grunt as he carried the girl down the platform and onto the floor of the TARDIS.

"Then how did it take the children?" Zachary asked as he attempted to herd the children to follow him in a somewhat organised line.

"Well, that's the thing. Remember the glass tube I gave to you, well when I brought it to the TARDIS, she should have absorbed the whole thing.

Would have powered for another twenty years or so. No such luck, which means it wasn't TARDIS compatible and therefore-"

"Not TARDIS technology at all." Finished Zacahry with a finger upon his chin. "Then the Fravashi lied to you. But that still doesn't explain how you got in contact here."

"Well if you let me finish Zach."

"Sorry."

"Like I was saying…The time machine back in the Breeders house was bolted to the floor which means it was stationary. No one could have worked it like a TARDIS because it would move. I'll show you." He gestured for the boy to open the doors, which he did, and the smell of clean air and grass hit their senses.

The children gathered around the outside the blue box, almost falling out of it to reach thr ground below. Cheering with high mewing they attracted the attention of older kemonomimi's who where already making their way across the vast grassy hills coming from the dark forests ahead.

"Shh, it's okie. You're home now and nothing's going to hurt you anymore." The Doctor smiled down at the teenager in his arms and brushed a few strands of matted hair from her gaunt face. With a weak smile, she reached up towards him and cupped his face in her hands before starting to purr. Closing her eyes tight she began to grunt and mew in frustration.

It was then that Zachary caught sight of the machine not thirty feet in front of them. It was an almost duplicate of the one in the Lecell's house. Now he understood how they took the children from their rightful place in time.

"Can you see it Zach. By making the first machine, they sent the second one ahead and that's when they started to pluck the children." He heard the Doctor from behind and peered over his shoulder to see him now on the floor with the labor established cat.

"But…But that makes no sense, does it?" He asked now perplexed but there was not allot of time to delve into the matter as the girl gave out another low growl of frustration.

"Zach she's going into labour. Oh I think her waters just burst…on my best suit." The Doctor frowned and the boy ran his hands through his own hair desperately.

"Ahh, what do you want me to do! Boil a kettle, bring some warm towels? You're the dammed Doctor!" The Doctor has already noted that Zachary was not good around human bodily fluids. What he was good in though, was a dire situation and this happened to be one of those times.

"Zach look at me, that's it. Now this girl, this tiny little thing is far more terrified than you at the moment. So if you could possibly take deep breath and run over to the direction of the Forrest, we would be both very grateful."

"...Right." Nodding his head, the boy took a deep shaky breath and peered over his shoulder towards the small gathering in the distance. Looking down at the girl he saw the terror in her face, the desperate need. If it was him....God if it was him then he knew he wouldn't want to be alone either, but she was safe in the Doctors arms.

"I'll bring help." He told her with a firm smile and she peered up at him, her brown sweaty but a smile graced her face. That was all the boy needed before he turned and ran across the grassy planes towards the large group of kemonomimi adults. They towered over him and that was not very hard considering the boy's short stature. But once he came level to them he gulped and looked up at the main man in charge.

The dark tanned skin was firm and muscle rippled down his chest area. Sandy coloured hair swan about his shoulders and his ears twitched ever so slightly once the human child came within ten feet of his gathering. Leather trousers clad his bottom half and his sandals crisscrossed up and over his bulky calves. With a small huff he bent downwards with his hands wrapped around a great wooden staff as to better see the child. The male must have been as small as one of his own young, but his eye's told him what his body could not. This was no child, but a companion of the Time Lord. The very being that had brought their children back to them.

Zachary came level with the creatures and looked and up and believed he would keep looking up. It was not as big as the Fravashi but it was close enough. It made him feel slightly in adequate and just to make him self appear that little bit taller, he craned his neck.

"Speak/" The creatures voice made his heart tremble inside his rib cage but he had to get it together, at least so he would not wet his pants with fear. His eye's sought out whomever could be considered as an elder, someone to help with the girl.

"One of the girls has gone into labour." He pointed haphazardly over his shoulder and the old woman nodded at him quickly. She and several other woman hurried towards the blue box on the hill side, but with a little more grace than when Zachary had zoomed down it. He was quite out of breath now and he doubled over to breath. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the squat yellow time machine that had been plucking children from their planet and scowled at it.

"We wish to be rid of it boy, can you do it?" The man asked and Zachary looked upwards into his dark green eyes and his firm face before nodding his head. The piece of glass tubing in his hands began to warm against his clothes and he could feel it upon his skin.

"Then do it." The being commanded and Zachary felt his legs tremble before he steadied them. He supposed you didn't argue with something that could smash you and think nothing more of it. With out a second though he turned and headed towards the rudimentry time machine.

The closer he came to the machine, the more he could feel it pulling him it. Adults where wary being whatever galaxy you are in or planet you happen to be on. Children on the other hand, well their the most inquisitive of them all. A child will befriend the monster in the closet if you do not, first, make out that it is evil. Surely a machine liked this had no trouble pulling them in. With the machine back on Catacombs of Snicket, there was no where for this machine to spit them out now when it had them in it's grasp. Still it tried to pull him in while he tried his hardest to pull back.

A great pulsing vortex that Zachary could only dismiss as evil and it was his job to get rid of it once and for all.

"Zachary!" He heard a voice calling but he closed his eye's and his ears off to the sound of the Doctors voice. "Get out of there, it's going to pull you in!" The Time Lord shouted and Zachary supposed he had never heard him sound so terrified right then.

"It must be difficult." He said quietly, there was no need to shout. "To frighten you Doctor." It was not hard to frighten Zachary though and right then his legs felt like jelly, his heart rate increased ten fold and the tips of fingers began to tingle. But that was okie, but he had a job to do. Perhaps this would be the last thing he did, and then he would be born. It was not so bad, he could have been hit by a bus back on Earth but at least this way he got to stop something awful that he had been a part of.

The Doctor could not penetrate the force field that had encased his companion and he looked on with horror. The little cat toddler clutched at his trouser legs and buried his tiny face in the back of his knee's. Looking down, the Doctor caught a glimpse of the shaken little child and scooped him up into his arms and held him close to his chest.

"Zach, I'm so sorry. I can't get through the force field." The Doctor told him but the boy simply smile and reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out the glass tube that glowed like a thousand stars in his hands. "That's okie. I've got to stop being a coward. Is the girl all right?" He asked quietly and the Doctor blinked for a moment before smiling and nodding her head. "She's doing great."

"Good." With his hands clasped around the tube he made a shaky movement forwards and dug his heels into the ground as not to be completely sucked in, not just then.

"Oh and Doctor. Look after Collin, I think he likes you. I don't know what it is about you Doc, but you pull people in. That's why she loved you, that's why they all loved you." And with that, he raised the glass above his head and launched it at the time machine. it hit the metal encasement with a small ding and silence rang out across the land. The force field and vortex began to draw itself in, taking Zachary with it.

The Doctor had less than a second to think and even less time to react. Swinging Collin around onto his back, he delved for his screw driver and thrust it forward on maximum setting. It paused the imploding vortex for a fraction a Milli second and without word or gesture, the large kemonomimi male leaped forward, using his staff to leverage himself upwards. With a mighty call, he leaped over the once impenetrable fortress and plucked the boy from his impeding death.

Landing on the other side of the machine, the planet trembled with his excessive weight just in time for the machine to implode in on itself just as the other one had done. Fizzling inwards, it ceased it nothingness. The force field that had encased it struck downwards and killed all of the grass in it's wake. Then, it was quiet once again.

The Doctor rose his head after shielding it from the light of the vortex and his eye's rested on the limp form in the kemonomimi's arms. His chest was still and his head hung back with his mouth partially open. The Doctor stumbled forward and the large man only shook his head silently, a solemn look passing over his usual harsh face. "The child is not breathing. I believe he was dead the moment that machine took hold of him."

Collin peered over the Doctor's shoulder and began to pine in the Time Lords ear, reaching forward with his tiny grasping hand. It was then that the Doctor felt it all over again. His heart began to break and he knew yet another one had left him and once again he was all on his own. But he couldn't...he could not be on his own again. He refused to believe it!

"Zachary. Come on Zachy boy, not yet. You're not ready yet." He said quietly, taking the still limp boy into his arms but he could feel his legs give way and he stumbled to the ground. Collin held on tight and refused to be dropped as the Time Lord cradled the boy's dead and cooling body. Looking down at him, he saw for the first time a peace that had spread over his features. All the contorted anger and hate had left him younger looking, like a tiny child curled up in his arms. Small ships of white hair mingled in with the black floated delicately in the breeze but other than that he made no movement.

...

"Get back down there you silly boy." He heard his parent scold him with a smile in it's voice.

"Mama?" He asked but he could not see past the dark veil to find his way towards him.

"Go on, you're not ready yet. And don't walk in front of buses."

...

There a was great gasp and gulp for air that erupted in the silence of the planet and Zachary felt his eye's almost burst open. Feeling around desperately, he clung to what ever he could and looked upwards, seeing the Doctor's tear stained cheeks. He looked just as shocked as he did and through that he could only find one thing to say.

"Only wimps and girls cry."

The Doctor very nearly chocked on laughter before he laughed upwards and felt the strengh rise in his legs. Without a struggle or hesitation, he waltzed upwards with Collin on his back, and Zachary still in his arms. They laughed until it hurt and span arounduntil Zachary very nearly threw up on the Doctor. They only stopped when the sound of a baby's new born cry wailed out across the land the time traveling pair looked at each other and both grinned despite themselves.

***

The baby was a little boy with dark curly hair and sleek black ears that where nearly as big as it's head. The girl had wanted to call itZachary and she made her decision by pointing at the baby and then towards the Seraphim who could only shake his hands in dismissal. She had been quite adamant about it and the Doctor had told him to swallow his humbleness and be grateful to her, which he was. It was the kemonomimi's way of thanking them and peering down at the baby now in his arms, Zachary wouldn't have it any other way.

"So what was the glass anyway?" He questioned the Doctor when he emerged from the TARDIS in a cleaner and less amniotic fluid covered suit. "We created a paradox. By the first machine no longer existing, the second one had to reason to be. By bringing it in contact with a power core that didn't belong to it, or even exist in it's mind, we made it, hmm-" The Doctor began to swirl his hand around, as if he would pick the answer from the sky itself.

"We made it do that thing where you think to much and you space out for a minute when you realise how big the universe truly is and how small you really are?" Zachary offered the Doctor pointed at him. "Bingo."

"More importantly, if you ever do something as stupid as that again then I'm going to have to lock you up in the TARDIS. Do you here me?" The Doctor warned and Zachary nodded his head with a small scowl.

"Yes Dad." He smirked and he was rewarded by the Doctor playfully messing up his already unruly hair. "But really, what you did was brave."

"You would have done the same thing. But better me than you I think Doc. The universe needs you."

"Do you think it does?"

"Nah mate, I know it does." And they both grinned at each other as the kemonomimi who saved Zachary approached them. His name was Noivet and when he came close enough to the pair, he grabbed them both and spun them around with a loud bark of laughter. The time traveling duo had to hold on for deer life, but even they laughed once they where placed down on the ground. It wasZachary who fell first, only to have Collin jump into his lap and purr with content as he rubbed their cheeks together.

"The kitten is fond of you Seraphim. It does not bode well to take a child from it's parent." He spoke with a smile in his voice and The Doctor turned so suddenly that the boy was sure he would stumble over backwards.

"Oh no you don't Zachary Birch. The trouble with a kitten is that it eventually becomes a cat." He warned but the boy could only grin up at him and then towards Noivet.

"Doctor, I trust you to take care of one of the kingdoms subjects?" The large muscular man asked of the Time Lord who could only roll his eye's before nodding his head quiet firmly. "Of course Noivet."

"Wait." Said Zachary, getting to his feet with Collin perched upon his hip. "Did you say parent, but I only met the little mite today?" He asked with an arch of an eyebrow but the man could only shrug inresponse.

"The kit had no one and then he found you. You're scent is one of the same. If that's not a bond then I'm not sure what is." He smiled and nodded his head before patting Collin on the head with one of his great hands.

"My kingdom thanks you Time Lord and Seraphim but I must ask you to leave. There is a great storm coming and I worry for both your safety."

Zachary looked upwards, there as not a cloud in sight.

"What kind of storm?" The Doctor asked but Noivet could only look at him with frown of frustration. "You're journey is a long one Doctor and though the end is quite near, you still have far to go."

Once back in the TARDIS, with Collin firmly strapped into one of the little bus seats, Zachary turned towards the Doctor with a look of puzzlement.

"Every things been in code today. I don't like puzzles."

"Oh you do." Said the Doctor. "You love the feeling once you've figured it out, but until then it nag and niggles at you until it turns into dislike. I don't dislike puzzles or codes. I think they're brilliant. But you're right, it's been a long day, but worth it." He smiled at Zachary over the TARDIS console and the boy beamed back.

"We've fallen on strange times my friend." He added.

"Strange." Said Zachary. "But wondrous strange."

And the TARDIS began to play it's song to the universes before diapering from the kemonomimi planes and three lost little souls wandered the Sky's looking for more adventure and even more trouble.

**The End...For Now.**

**A/N:** Complete! I am so very proud of myself for finishing this. A big thank you to those who have read this and the few who have reviewed, they made me smile when I read them. I'm not quite ready to hang up Zachary's character just yet so be alert for more from him in the future,

I didn't really interned for the Fic to turn out quite like this bu it's a lot better than the one I originally planned. I do hope that no one minds that it became very OC focused near the end, it just happened to be what poured out of my brain at the time.

Any unanswered questions, I'll leave to you the audience. After-all, time is a very complex thing and if we understood it then we not need to Doc anymore and that would be a terrible thing indeed.

As a undergrad Graphic Designer, there's a book cover currently in progress of this little fan drabble. Keep and eye out on my Deviant Art for that.

**Song's I associate with Catacombs Of Snicket:**

**Sum 41:** Walking Disaster

**No Doubt:** Trapped In A box

**The View: **Same Jeans On

**Feltbeats: **If you could be anywhere.

See if you can find out why and keep watch for the little epilogue. You're all FANTASTIC!


	11. Epilogue

**Title:** The Catacombs Of Snicket (Epilogue)  
**Author:** Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe:** Doctor Who (10)  
**Rating:** 14 +  
**Genre**: Drama/Action/Mystery?  
**Disclaimer:** The Doc belongs to the BBC. Only Zach, Collin and the plot belong to me so I apologise for this brain burp that happened.  
**Summary:** The after thoughts for the Doctors latest companion.

Epilogue:

Two Months Later…

The Doctor was like a sugar filled child at the funfair, trying to decide through the excitement, which ride to go on next. Standing poised and wiggling his fingers, his face glowed an ominous green in the light from the TARDIS console.

Zachary thought he looked like a scarecrow in a blue suit. A scarecrow with trainers and more sticky-out wobbly hair that was deemed appropriate.

The boy sat on one of the winding platforms, journal resting upon his lap so he could scribble down quick notes and musings. The high squealing sounds of Collins giggling laughter had distracted him though and now he was watching with a smirk as the Time Lord chased the toddler around the console. The little thing had the Doctors screwdriver (on safety of course) and the mans glasses. They where playing Doctor vs the big scary monster, again. It was a favourite past time of the Doctors but he would no admit that. He was only doing it for the three year olds benefit, or so he had told Zachary but they both knew it was a complete lie.

"Ahh, Doctor! You've defeated me with your brilliance, Nooo." The Doctor clutched at his hearts in mock anguish and collapsed to the floor in a comical fashion. Collin cheered happily and ran over to the Doctor before pouncing on top of his chest, causing the Time Lord to groan in pain.

"Collin be careful, he's old. He might break a hip." Zachary smirked and the Doctor cracked open one eye to glare up at his companion before scooping the wiggling child up into his arms. To say he had not been keen on the kitten in the first place, he sure was playing with the little thing allot more now. A soft spot for kids, that's what the Doctor had and Zachary mused that he must have been a great father once. But he was not thinking of that right then.

Both he and Doctor knew that he would have carried the Time Lords child, the first to be born since the Time war. Words did not have to be spoken and Zachary felt it would have been the same way with everyone of his past companions.

The Seraphim had found him hunched over his desk one quiet night, his shirt and suit jacket strewn on the floor, discarded. Without knowing whether he was crying or laughing, Zachary had stooped down and wrapped his arms firmly around him, his cheek pressed into the hollow of his back. In a strange way he did love the Doctor but he was not _in_ love with him and he would not have it any other way. Words where not said and they never spoke of it again but it was still there in the back of their minds.

"OI, I'll give you old." But he smirked and lifted Collin up onto the platform so he could watch the Doctor zoom around the console room. The little kitten giggled and pushed the Doctors glasses to the top of his head and tried to put the screwdriver into his mouth. Zachary rolled his eyes and took the device from him, pawing it from one hand to the next.

"Where to next then?" He asked as he peered over the controls at the two dark haired beings that looked more like brothers than two different alien species.

"I don't know about you, but I could do with a breather."

"A breather!" He said, aghast.

"We're not all Time Lords you know. That research project in the middle ages very nearly killed me, I'm pretty sure I came this close to catching the bubonic plague." He pressed his thumb and forefinger together to show just how serious it had been and Collin copied his every gesture. "I could do with a nice sit down and cup of tea."

"You're sitting down!"

"But where's the tea!"

The Doctor looked at him like a star pupil who had just handed in a sub standard piece of work. "You're so...English."

"Bing Bing Bing! We have a winner, will the real Doctor please stand up." Zachary smirked with sarcasm dripping from his very words, but in the end they grinned at each other and he jumped down from the platform.

"Let's go to NY. We can be legal aliens in New York."

"Ah yes, where would be with out Sting?" The Doctor asked with a roll of his eyes.

"The Police would have no bass player, now get to it space man!"

The Doctor complied with a grin. "Zachary, Collin. Prepare your self for the best ride of your lives!"

And somewhere, not too far off, an Irish boy looked up at the sky and wondered who on Earth he was.

**To be continued in "Wilde Ride" (Pending Title) **

**Edit of Monday 11th May 09: Sequeal is now up, find it in my profile. Thanks!  
**


End file.
